HALL

The great hall from a 1790s house in Warren County, Georgia, is among the most well-studied and documented interiors in MESDA’s collection. Donated to the museum from a dilapidated house, the museum staff carefully studied the entire building on site, striving to understand the significance of the donated room in the context of the entire house plan. In an effort to preserve the space with as much integrity as possible, the museum removed not only the visible materials—paneling, flooring, etc.—but the entire framing system as well. This enabled the museum to reconstruct the room as accurately as possible in the display space. Each element of the room was carefully photographed and those elements rendered useless by rot were reproduced in kind and noted in a lengthy installation report. The museum even completed a paint analysis in an effort to study the room’s original paint layer and its paint history through time.

The room is shown as it was in-situ and as it is installed at MESDA.  The house is shown as it stood prior to its demolition.