Plankinton’s Palace: Moorish Reception

1/30/26 15 Comments

Authored & Curated By

M.J.G.

Reception Room(1880s) – period view

In today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at three photographs of Plankinton’s Moorish-designed reception room. Many people have asked why there was a need for a reception room if the parlor was already dedicated to guests.

In the 19th century, a reception room was simply a space set aside for receiving visitors—where callers could be greeted and seated without intruding on everyday family life. It was common enough to appear in planning manuals and etiquette guides, and by the 1880s the older “parlor” was often described in the same, more practical terms. In Louis H. Gibson’s 1889 manual, he writes, “The parlor has lost the awful stiffness of times past. It is now a reception-room,” adding that it might be “merely a reception-room,—a room where a lady may receive her callers….” Likewise, in John H. Young’s 1881 Our Deportment, visitors are “ushered into the reception-room,” reinforcing it as the proper setting for formal calls and introductions. From there, visitors could be brought into other rooms in the home.

In practice, the labels weren’t always rigid. Some households used a reception hall instead of a separate reception room, and visitors might be brought into the parlor—or sometimes the library—depending on the situation. This home, however, followed the conventional plan, with a reception room located off the left side of the front hallway. At the Edison home, the reception room was used for hosting and social visits, such as having tea with friends. Mark Twain famously removed his reception room to enlarge the hall—turning it into a kind of reception hall.

Special thanks to Katie Blank, University and Digital Records Archivist, for her help with permissions and documentation.

Today, we’ll focus on this section of the palace, highlighted here.

To help get oriented from the last articles, last time we looked at the hall and the parlor. The reception room sits on the left side of the hall as you enter through the front door. If you step into the reception room and turn back around, this is the view looking back through the hall toward the parlor. From the center of the reception room, you can see straight through the heavily draped portières into the parlor, with that striking Islamic-inspired pattern framing the opening. If you remember, we saw this photograph last time while discussing the parlor—but we were zoomed in tightly on the parlor itself and didn’t stop to examine the surrounding details. That’s what we’ll do now.

Before turning around into the room, though, let’s focus on the entry. While the space is divided by heavily patterned Islamic-inspired portières, it could also be closed off with solid doors. You can also see the creative tieback being used to gather the drapery here.

Looking closer here at the pocket door, you can see a hammered escutcheon. On the right side, you’d press a small button and a recessed pull would slide out, allowing you to draw the door open. This style of pocket-door hardware was very popular. Some accounts claim the doorknobs and hardware were gold plated, but I have not seen solid documentation to confirm that.

Above the doorway is a heavily fringed valance (or pelmet). Through the opening, you can also spot the hall’s gas light, along with the heavily ornamented gas chandelier hanging in the parlor beyond. Now, if we turn around fully, we can take in the other corner of the room.

Turning around to the opposite corner of the room reveals a richly decorated, Moorish-styled interior. In its heyday, this space must have been full of color and sparkle. To the left is an enormously carved fireplace mantel with a large mirrored overmantel that we’ll look at more closely in a moment.

But right away, notice something familiar: the marble statue of the girl with an umbrella appears to have been moved from the hallway into the reception room corner here. It’s unclear where she originally belonged, but given how carefully “Eastern” the room’s overall approach is, the statue feels a little out of place—almost as if it wasn’t originally intended to live in this setting. It was also very common for objects to be shifted around for photographs, either by the photographer or by the household, especially when they wanted certain sentimental pieces to appear in the view.

First, let’s look closely at the statue on the center table. This unidentified piece—a camel outfitted with traveling gear—is especially striking. In the foreground, a man or child reaches up toward the camel, perhaps preparing to climb up or remove some of the items. Due to the strong reflections in the photograph, I wasn’t able to sharpen the image enough to do a useful search for more detail. If you recognize this artwork, please share it in the comments section below.

Now let’s move down to the base of this fantastic fireplace mantel. It’s bold and finely carved, with extremely impressive detail throughout. You can also just make out the arched opening of what appears to be a shallow coal firebox.

The mantel holds a bronze bust of an unidentified woman, wearing what appears to be a headdress.

To the left and right of the mantel are gas sconces, positioned beneath the built-in shelves.

The overmantel shelves hold beautifully shaped, Islamic-style vases. In the mirror’s reflection, you can also see the opposite wall, including the divided archways and the doorway curtains.

Enhanced Photo
This cleaned-up version of the same photo, using denoise tools and careful sharpening, brings out the details much more clearly. The vase’s ornament is exquisite.

While we aren’t really able to see the full room in these photos, the mirror reflection is a fantastic way to catch other portions of the room’s finishes. Here, it gives us a view of the room’s frieze, which appears very elaborate. You can also see the Islamic-style archways, with painted scenes set above the doorway openings.

Enhanced Photo
Again, this cleaned-up version of the same photo—using denoise tools and careful sharpening—brings out the painted wall scenes much more clearly, along with the top portion of the portière and its glistening tassels. On the heavily fringed valance, you can also see large tassels spaced across the top.

Now let’s focus on this spectacular gasolier, with its pressed-metalwork and distinctly Middle Eastern–inspired design. When lit, it must have cast a shimmering light across the room, catching and reflecting off the metalwork.

Enhanced Photo
This portion of the photo had enough clarity to work with, and the denoiser pulled out some surprisingly sharp detail. It’s a truly fantastic, ornate piece with so much going on that it takes a while to really study its design language and notice how the patterns build across the form.

This portière uses a Moorish/Islamic-style geometric pattern—the kind Victorian sources often described as “Moorish,” “Saracenic,” or “Alhambresque.” The design is built on classic “star-and-polygon” geometry: five-point stars interlock with irregular polygons, all outlined by bold, dark dividing lines that read almost like grout or leadwork. That strong separation gives the fabric a mosaic-tile effect, echoing the look of North African and Andalusian tilework (often loosely linked to the Alhambra in 19th-century design writing), and it fits neatly within the period’s broader taste for Middle Eastern–inspired ornament in textiles and interiors.

This third and final view shows the same corner, but with the doorway draperies pulled open, allowing us to see into the next room—which we’ll step into in the next article. The “girl with the umbrella” statue has also been turned to face the opposite direction in this photograph.

The statue’s marble base is beautifully carved, and this view also gives us a clearer look at one of the chairs in the room, along with its upholstery fabric.

This last close-up is especially interesting because you can actually make out the tall wood dado, beautifully carved with Islamic-style archways.

But what may be even more surprising is the wall fill above it: it appears to be divided into panels and finished in what looks like tufted silk. That would have given the room a noticeably warmer, softer feel than painted plaster or flat wall coverings. The way light played across that tufted surface likely added a shifting texture and sheen you don’t see elsewhere in the house.

Looking through these opened curtains, next time we’ll step into the family sitting room beyond.

Plankinton's Palace:
Chapter 1: The House
Chapter 2: The Hall
Chapter 3: The Parlor
Chapter 4: The Reception Room (current)
Chapter 5: The Sitting Room (coming)

Other Historic Photographic Deep Dives

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