Entrance hall

“ The buildings surround two court-yards, or quadrangles, the entrance being surmounted by an embattled tower; the main buildings and large tower are also embattled.
The banqueting-hall is a noble apartment, 42 feet long by 22 feet wide. It has a remarkably fine timber roof, with intersecting arches in its compartments. At the upper end, to the left, the lord’s table stood beneath the bayed window, and opposite to it a doorway leads to the principal staircase. At the bottom of the hall are three doorways, one of which led to the great kitchen, and the other two to the buttery and the cellar. ”

“ The front door opened into a spacious entrance hall which in former times had been the dining-room. At the end of the hall was the grand staircase, adorned by statues, armour, and the Heredith arms carved in panels. The principal rooms, with the exception of the dining-room, were all on the ground floor of the main building, but corridors led off the entrance hall to the newer wings at each side, extending on the right side to the billiard room, conservatory, greenhouses, and orangery, and on the left side to the dining-room, Miss Heredith's private sitting-room, and Sir Philip's study. ”

“ Ascending the broad flight of steps and crossing the terrace, the house door is entered. A spacious hall, paved with delicately-grained marble, its windows mellowed by the soft tints of stained glass, whose pervading hues are of rose and violet, gives entrance to reception rooms on either side. Those on the right hand are mostly reserved for state occasions; those on the left are dedicated to common use. ”

“ He shuffled across the wide stone-paved hall and, losing himself beneath the great arch of the short passage to the entrance-front, hastened to admit his new visitor. He gives us thereby the use of his momentary absence for a look at the place he has left.
This is the central hall, high and square, brown and grey, flagged beneath and timbered above, of an old English country-house; an apartment in which a single survey is a perception of long and lucky continuities. ”

“ The “Bear Tower,” with a flight of steps descending to a subterranean passage, leading no one knows whither, will be noticed, as also will “Guy’s Tower.”
From the inner court a flight of stone steps leads to the entrance to the Great Hall, which is of large size; its walls are decorated with arms and armour of various periods and descriptions, and with antlers and other appropriate objects. On one side of this hall are the state rooms, and on the other the domestic apartments, forming a line of 333 feet in length. ”

“ The plan is a rectangular parallelogram with a frontage of 180 ft. and a depth of 333 ft., more than double, therefore, of the size of Serbistan. An immense entrance hall in the centre of the main front is flanked on each side by two halls placed at right angles to it, so as to resist the thrust of the elliptical barrel vaults of the entrance hall. This hall leads to a series of three square halls, side by side, each surmounted by a dome carried on pendentives. Beyond is an open court, the smaller rooms round all covered with barrel vaults. ”

“ The T-shaped hall ends on the solid wall behind the stairway on the west side, and on the east leads directly into the post-Civil War wing which contains a small sitting room, bathroom, and the kitchen. The smaller hall, the stem of the T, runs perpendicular to the main hall with opposing entrance doors at each end. The spacious living and dining rooms flank the smaller hall, with entrances from the main hall. ”

“ What man would not have yielded? The hall, as seen from the entrance, was wide and unusually rich. Indeed, an air of the highest respectability, as well as of unbounded wealth, characterised the whole establishment; and however odd the adventure appeared, it certainly offered nothing calculated to awaken distrust. Entering with her, I shut the door behind me. In an instant she was half-way down the hall. ”

“ A fair entrance, with an easy ascent, gives a great grace to a building, where the hall is a preferment out of the court, the parlor out of the hall; not (as in some old buildings) where the doors are so low, pigmies must stoop, and the rooms so high that giants may stand upright. ”

“ In the Entrance Hall is a copy of Michael Angelo’s statue of “Thought;” and on the Grand Staircase is a rich assemblage of family and other portraits. In the various bed-rooms and other apartments, too, are contained a vast number of valuable paintings and works of Art. ”

“ Through this doorway the carriages literally drive into the mansion, and there set down the guests in the Hall itself, which is of great size, with an arched roof, supported by eight octagonal pillars in its centre. “When the brilliant gas above combines its glare with that of two enormous fires, and the roof is echoing to the tramp of horses and the roll of wheels, the visitor cannot but be struck with the unusual entrance,” says a recent writer. In this Hall is hung Turner’s famous picture of Raby Castle. ”

“ Owing to the altered arrangement of the screens there is no thoroughfare leading straight from the front door to the court beyond.
In the next example (Figs. 221, 222) we have a further departure from the old type. Screens of a kind there are, but the front door leads only to the hall (through a vestibule) , and the hall has to be traversed to gain the kitchen. The buttery is in an entirely novel position, and the tendency clearly is to preserve the front door for the family, and to relegate the servants to their own entrance. ”

“ Old-fashioned flower-beds are scattered here and there over the smooth lawn, making a landscape [Pg 255] picture that is most alluring. The entrance door opens into a spacious hallway that is about twenty feet in width. The staircase at the left is five feet in width, an unusual breadth, even for one of that period. It has treads of solid mahogany, with simple but substantial balusters on either side, topped with mahogany rails. This hall is used for a living-room and a hall combined and is well lighted by doors on either side showing well-proportioned fan and sidelights. ”

“ The hall had windows looking this way, and upon it opened the hall postern. Towards the south end a few steps descended about 10 feet into the south-west bastion. Probably there was a cross wall here with a doorway. Turning the south-west corner, the ground again rises to a door in a wall which crosses the south terrace near its west end. This side of the wall has a central half-round bastion, the broken parapet of which shows traces of a loop and of a garderobe. On the remaining or eastern side is the great entrance. Here the gateway, which crowns a low salient, is flanked by two roundels. ”

“ The visitor now stands before the old gateway, with its massive nail-studded door, and will note the noble flight of freestone steps, where time and use have left the marks of frequent footsteps. Indeed, the top step—just opposite the small entrance wicket in the larger door—is actually worn through in the shape of a human foot. He will also notice the extreme beauty and elegance of design of the Gothic architecture of this part of the building, and the heraldic bearings with which it is decorated. ”

“ Every part of the venerable edifice contains, indeed, some object of interest. The rooms, and halls, and galleries are thronged with rare and beautiful works of Art; a series of perfect vases from Herculaneum lie on the tables of the Picture Gallery; several antique busts and statues line the hall; a magnificent bath, of red Egyptian granite, is placed in the entrance passage; and the furniture and interior decorations are all of corresponding excellence and beauty. ”

“ On either side of this little hall are doorways leading to the downstairs bedrooms; and the entry hall at the side is flanked on the left by a small room formerly used, first as the overseer’s or steward’s room and later as a nursery, and now serving as the museum. On the right is General Jackson’s library or office which has a door leading to the front bedroom (which was the General’s) and another door opening on the front portico, corresponding to the similar door at the other end of the porch which affords entrance into the dining room. ”

“ Passing out from the Banqueting-Hall, the visitor should next enter the Dining-room, which is one of the most charming, and certainly one of the most interesting, apartments in the whole building. The end opposite to the entrance doorway is entirely taken up by a Gothic window of eight lights, filled with glass disposed in an elaborate geometric pattern. In some of the lights are shields of arms in stained glass, one of which displays the arms of Vernon with its quarterings of Avenell, Pype, &c., &c. ”

“ We do not, however, enter the staircase, but pass on to the hall or inner vestibule, which affords immediate access to the sitting-rooms. Perhaps I may as well mention here, that the servants' hall, &c. for the men-servants would be in the basement at this end of the house, consequently would be just by the entrance. ”

“ The principal apartments of Haddon Hall are the Chapel, the Great, or Banqueting-Hall, with the Minstrels’ Gallery occupying two sides of it; the Dining-room; the Drawing-room; the earl’s Bed-room and adjoining suite of rooms; the Ball-room, or Long Gallery; the Ante-room, from which Dorothy Vernon’s door opens on to the terrace; the State Bed-room; the Ancient State Room, or Page’s Room; the Kitchens; and the Eagle, or Peverel, or King John’s Tower. The entrance in this latter was the principal entrance to the Hall, and communicated with Rowsley and Bakewell by an old road which still exists. ”

“ John Marshall House
City Hall
The large gray stone structure on the southeast corner of Broad Street is the City Hall. Dedicated in 1894, it was built on the site of the old City Hall, erected in 1816 and condemned in 1874. This building contains the offices of the Mayor, the City Manager and various municipal departments. ¶ Cross Broad and continue on Tenth to Capitol Street. Turn right on Capitol one block to Ninth. Turn left on Ninth to entrance of Capitol Square. ”

“ When he chose to take a walk it was with a regular step in the entrance hall with its mosaic flooring, or in the circular gallery with its dome supported by twenty red porphyry Ionic columns, and illumined by blue painted windows. ”

“ Opposite to the window was a small fireplace, and the only entrance to the room was from the big dining-hall. The hall was panelled, and one of the panels formed the door into the secret chamber. I believe this kind of thing is fairly common in old houses dating back to the times of religious and political trouble, when hiding-places were constantly wanted. ”

“ On the west side is the great hall built in the fifteenth century by Rhys ap Thomas, with its imposing porch-tower and entrance stair, a large and amply lighted room. On the north are the additions made in the sixteenth century by333 Sir John Perrott. The eastern rooms are those of a house within a castle: the western hall is that of a house which, although military considerations have had no part in its planning, is still confined within an earlier curtain. ”

“ Passing between embattled walls, the entrance to the [12] right is a majestic tower, bearing sculptured over the doorway the armorial bearings, crest, supporters, with mantling, &c., of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The steps leading to the doorway are flanked on either side by a life-size “talbot,” bearing the shield and the family arms, while on the pedestals, &c., are the monogram of Earl John, and the motto “Prest d’accomplir.” Passing through the doors the visitor enters the Entrance Tower, a square apartment of extremely lofty proportions. ”

“ The mansion is approached from the principal Lodge Entrance by a drive through the park, which is finely timbered with forest trees of large growth. These are chiefly oaks, of which there are some remarkably fine and gigantic examples. Under these roam innumerable herds of red and fallow deer, which add much to the beauty of the park scenery. The Lodge, with its overhanging roofs, its mullioned windows, its geometrical chimney-shafts, and its advanced porch, is one of the most picturesque and pleasant in the county. ”

“ From the market-place itself there is but one entrance to it; an arched doorway opening upon a low-roofed stone hall; in place of a door there are heavy gates of iron, with a smaller wicket-gate set in their midst; from the stone hall a stone stair leads to the various chambers above; in the outer walls the windows are high and narrow; each is filled with old painted glass. A strong, grim building, this; and when the iron gates are locked, as they are every night when the curfew bell—an ancient institution jealously kept up in Hathelsborough—rings from St. ”

“ The Main Entrance.
The Hall stands on a natural elevation—a platform of limestone—above the eastern bank of the Wye: the river is crossed by a pretty, yet venerable, bridge, passing which, we are at the foot of the rock, immediately fronting the charming cottage which is the lodge of the custodian who keeps the keys. In the garden we make our first acquaintance with the boar’s head and the peacock—shaped from growing yew-trees—the crests of the families whose dwelling we are about to enter. This cottage adjoins the old stables; their antiquity is denoted by several sturdy buttresses. ”

“ If the ground glass of the vestibule door be exposed and staring, the hall floor bare and cold, the hall chair hard and stiff, the doors to the reception or sitting-room all closed, rising black and grim before you, and the hall itself so dark that you can not see even where to lay down your companionable umbrella, does there not come over you a chill, as if you were being repelled by the spirit of inhospitality? ”