HALL

The Pocomoke Room, from the Powell House in Somerset County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, presents an early eighteenth-century interior. While shockingly “mean” (to use a period term) to modern sensibilities, the Pocomoke Room represents one of the better houses of its era. The building’s raised masonry foundation, plastered interior, and large masonry chimney set it apart from the earth-floored houses with exposed framing and wattle and daub chimneys occupied by the vast majority of people in the Chesapeake well into the early decades of the eighteenth century. The house’s one large common chamber, called the hall, was the center for the majority of activities, including cooking, eating, entertaining, and sleeping for the family and the handful of indentured servants and/or slaves that assisted in the agricultural work that supported the household. On those properties that had few or no other structures, the hall was even the site for agricultural processing.

These images show the Powell house in-situ in Somerset County, Maryland, prior to conservation and installation at MESDA.