Queer Places:
Yale University (Ivy League), 38 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven, CT 06520
Cedar Grove Cemetery, 638 Broad St, New London, CT 06320, United States
George Shepard Palmer (March 20, 1855 - January 23, 1934) was born on March 20, 1855, in Montville, New London County, Connecticut, to the Honorable Elisha Hulbert Palmer
and Ellis Loomis Palmer. Raised alongside his siblings—Elisha, Edward, Frederic, Mary, Arabella, and Frank—he went on to attend the Norwich Free Academy before graduating
from Yale University.
As a business leader, Palmer established the Palmer Brothers company, which eventually grew to become the largest manufacturer of its goods in the country. Beyond his commercial success, he was deeply committed to civic and educational life, maintaining a long-standing association with Connecticut College that included serving as the chairman of the board of trustees. He also established a prominent New London footprint by building "Westomere," a grand estate on Pequot Avenue situated on the former property of Henry Goelet McVickar.
"Westomere" was a magnificent Gilded Age country estate built around 1908. Situated on Pequot Avenue, within the fashionable shoreline enclave known as the Pequot Colony, the mansion was designed by the renowned prominent architect Charles A. Platt, who was celebrated for his mastery of Italian Renaissance-inspired architecture, formal gardens, and harmonious integration of buildings with their natural landscapes.
The architectural concept for Westomere was directly modeled after Westover Plantation, the famous 18th-century Georgian brick mansion located in Charles City County, Virginia. Platt adapted these classic colonial and Georgian Revival motifs to create a stately, symmetrical structure perfectly suited for the New England coast. True to its premier location along Pequot Avenue, the estate featured sweeping, expansive lawns with deep setbacks that offered commanding, panoramic views overlooking the Thames River as it opened into Long Island Sound. Westomere was widely considered a masterpiece of early 20th-century American domestic architecture. Its acclaim was cemented when it was ranked No. 9 on Country Life in America magazine's prestigious 1916 list of the "Best Twelve Country Houses in America." Beyond its structural elegance, the home served as an exquisite backdrop for Palmer's peerless collection of early American decorative arts and furniture. Exceptional pieces from his collection—such as the famous Palmer-Franklin Chippendale mahogany bonnet-top high chest—were famously housed as functional showpieces within Westomere's carefully appointed rooms before eventually finding their way into major museum collections like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Like many of the grand coastal estates of its era, Westomere is no longer extant, but it remains an architectural landmark of the Gilded Age in Connecticut.
Palmer's personal life included two marriages. He wed his first wife, Ida Amelia Cooke, in 1879 until her passing in 1896, and later married Neva L. Fenno in 1901. Throughout his life, he became a dedicated and early enthusiast of American decorative arts, assembling a significant collection of Americana. His standing in the antiquarian community was recognized in 1910 when he was elected to the Horace Walpole Society, an exclusive, invitation-only organization of prominent collectors, scholars, and patrons where he remained a member for the rest of his life.
Palmer passed away on January 23, 1934, at the age of 78 at Mountain Lake Station in Polk County, Florida. Extensive coverage of his life and legacy was published in The New London Day, and his body was brought back to Connecticut for burial at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Neva, as well as his children Howard, Neva, and Priscilla.
While historical documentation of personal private orientations from the Gilded Age and early 20th century is frequently unrecorded or intentionally obscured, elite early collectors of American decorative arts—such as the tight-knit core of the Horace Walpole Society—frequently operated within homosocial spaces. Exclusive men's clubs, elite institutions like Yale University, and all-male antiquarian societies served as primary social frameworks for wealthy industrialists of the era. Scholars of queer history note that many prominent tastemakers of Palmer’s social strata built homosocial domestic environments, such as expansive private estates like Westomere, which supported non-traditional households, close-knit male mentorships, and homosocial patronage networks that ultimately laid the groundwork for modern American museum culture.
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