Like the dining room, the drawing room had very expensive furnishings and elaborate decoration. According to Fielding's probate inventory, the drawing room contained three tables, a set of ten chairs, a set of twelve prints, a looking glass, and a carpet. Here the Lewises kept their teaware, glassware, and silver. Some of the most valuable furnishings were in this room, which was the setting for activities such as tea drinking, card playing, and visiting. Its architecture also suggests the social use of the drawing room.

The plasterwork over the fireplace and on the ceiling makes this room one of the most elaborately decorated in the house, a room suited for displaying status and wealth. This ceiling features the seasons of the year in each of its corners, including palm fronds for spring, grapes for summer, oak leaves and acorns for autumn, and mistletoe for winter. View a large (2 MB) drawing of the ceiling.

This ceiling is also an important record of the 19th-century history of Kenmore. William Key Howard, Jr., whose family purchased the house in 1882, was a talented craftsman. He restored the plasterwork ceilings which had deteriorated with age and from damage inflicted by artillery fire during the Civil War. According to diaries and letters, Key Howard, Jr., also embellished the rooms with ornaments he had cast. He did not indicate which pieces he added, and his work is often difficult to distinguish from that done by the 18th-century stucco man. However, as a result of cleaning the ceilings, we now have a complete map of every element he added. While Key Howard, Jr. embellished in a few places, most of his work was restorative. The ceilings, as they appear today, are largely the way they looked when the Stucco Man was finished in 1775.

For more information about the way the drawing room may have looked when the Lewises moved into the house, please visit the Fight for Liberty pages.

Go to the next room on the tour or select the room you would like to visit on your virtual tour of the house:

Photo of Drawing Room by Dan Fitzpatrick
Drawings of plasterwork ceiling by HABS
Painting of Drawing Room by Peter Waddell

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Last Updated: May 7, 2008