Wilton was originally the manor house on a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) tobacco plantation known as "World's End" located on the north bank of the James River several miles east of the city of Richmond.

Open to the public since 1952, Wilton hosts a collection of 18th- and 19th-century furnishings, textiles, glass, ceramics, and silver that reflect the wealthy planter life of the mid-18th century.

Wilton was constructed circa 1753 for William III and his wife, Anne Harrison Randolph, on a 2,000-acre plantation overlooking the James River.

Wilton survived the Civil War and changed owners another four times before going into foreclosure by The Bank of Commerce and Trust during the depth of the Great Depression.

[5]At Wilton, the Randolphs enslaved over 100 African American men, women, and children and utilized slave labor to build both the house and produce their ongoing income in the form of wheat and tobacco.

In 1833, the writer Catharine Sedgwick visited Wilton and described "Broken down fences, a falling piazza, defaced paint, banisters ties up with ropes, etc."

The depositions of the land condition indicate that soil fertility on the plantation had been reduced due to hard cultivation over the years by owners and tenants.

[7] Wilton was in danger of foreclosure during the Great Depression, and then it was purchased by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1933 and was reconstructed along the banks of the James River, 15 miles west of its original location.