A24: Virginia Entrance Hall, 1751–55

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).

Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.

Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):

24: Virginia Entrance Hall, 1751–55
The original of this magnificent hall is to be found in Carter’s Grove, a plantation house located on a bluff eighty feet above the James River, some six miles southeast of Williamsburg. Its original owner, Carter Burwell, was the grandson of Robert “King” Carter, so called because of his vast holdings—three hundred thousand acres of land and one thousand slaves—and influence. Built over a period of years, the main house was completed in 1755 by masons and carpenters from the Williamsburg area. The fine woodcarving, however, was supervised by an Englishman, Richard Baylis, brought over from England for that purpose. Burwell did not enjoy for long what was commonly agreed to be one of the finest houses in Virginia; he died within a year of its completion. The house remained in the family until 1838, after which it had a succession of owners until it was purchased in 1928 by Mr. and Mrs. Archibald M. McCrea, who renovated and enlarged the house extensively. It is now owned and operated by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The woodwork throughout Carter’s Grove took some three years to execute and is one of its most striking features. In this entrance hall, the original paneling, long covered with layers of paint, was found to be native walnut and pine. The stairway, with its beautifully carved railing, is considered one of the finest of its period. It still bears the scars said to have been inflicted on it by the sabers of enemy dragoons, who slashed the handrails as they rode their horses up and down the staircase when the British occupied the house during the Revolutionary War.
Mrs. Thorne furnished the hall with copies of Philadelphia furniture whose style falls between the earlier and simpler Queen Anne mode and the later, more elaborate Rococo-inspired forms published by Thomas Chippendale (see E–8: English Bedroom of the Georgian Period, 1760–75). Until recently, historians assumed, as Mrs. Thorne probably did, that the good pieces of furniture in Colonial Virginia had been imported from England or the North. However, we know now that highly skilled craftsmen and cabinetmakers were active in Williamsburg and the surrounding area. It is therefore possible that the owners of the James River plantations might well have had some of their fine furniture made locally.
This room measures 14 x 18 1/4 x 22 inches.