Limestone mansion, built by successful industrialist Chester F. Wickwire, is a symbol of the grandeur of the Victorian and Gilded ages.

The lavish interiors of the 30-room mansion feature parquet floors, jewel-like stained-glass windows, ornate decorative stenciling, and oak and cherry woodwork. Discover artifact-filled period rooms, guilded-era interior and exterior architecture, rotating exhibits and display cases, and carriages on view in the Carriage House. There is literally something for everyone at The 1890 House Museum and Center for the Victorian Arts.

The 1890 House is the focal point of the Historic District of the City of Cortland and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Museum seeks to preserve and restore the 1890 House (together with the museum's carriage house and landscaped grounds), and to interpret to the public the historical and cultural significance of this property. In addition the musuem strives to collect, preserve, display, and interpret to the public appropriate objects and artifacts for the purposes of recreating appropriate historical interior and exterior settings at the 1890 House and for scholarly study, exhibition, and public interpretation of America's cultural heritage during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The 1890 House Museum and Center for the Arts is the former home of Chester and Ardell Wickwire. Built between 1888 and 1890 under the supervision of Architect Samuel Burrage Reed, the house was lived in by the Wickwire family until 1973. Following the Death of Marion Goodrich Wickwire in 1973, the Wickwire mansion and its contents were sold at auction. The house was purchased by the Landmark Society of Cortland County with the intent to make the building into a museum. Many orginal family objects sold at the auction were then donated back to the museum. In 1984 the museum received its non profit charter from the New York State Education Department.