RADFORD – Glencoe Mansion invites the community to take some time to slow down and enjoy the details.
A surprising place to find intricate details is keyholes and escutcheons, decorative covers for keyholes. Over the course of the 1800s many industries began to boom, creating a newly wealthy middle class. As members of the middle and upper classes began to amass more possessions of worth, they needed locks to keep their items safe. This meant new, more intricate metal locks for doors and windows to keep thieves out, as well as new locks for indoor safes as they began to employ household staffs and conduct business from home, welcoming “strangers” into their houses. Locks would have intricate details included as another way to display the owner’s wealth.
Examples of these intricate locks with their rich details can be found at Glencoe Mansion, which is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Submitted by Glencoe Mansion, Museum and Gallery
