Banquet Hall This well-proportioned room was planned by Washington for the banquet hall, and this addition, in 1776, completed the enlargement of his house—now dignified by the name of Mansion. The decoration throughout is as he designed it; the present fresh appearance of which is the result of restorations (1884) by Mrs. Justine Van Renssalaer Townsend, then Vice-Regent for New York. An attractive feature is the handsome marble mantel presented to Washington in 1785 by an English admirer, Mr. Samuel Vaughan. The model of the Bastile is made from a stone from the renowned French prison and was sent over by Lafayette in 1793. A plateau for ornamenting his dining table was imported by Washington. Among original relics recovered for this room are the clock, candlesticks and vases, two quaint silver bracket lamps, a footstool from Washington’s pew in Old Trinity Church, N. Y., and paintings of the Great Falls of the Potomac. There are portraits of Washington by Gilbert Stuart and C. W. Peale, also a supposed portrait of Washington at the age of twenty-one, recently sent over from Glasgow as a loan. Fireplace |