When you step in this grand mansion, remiss of the palatial Southern plantations, you will feel like Scarlet O’Hara entering your grand home. And on the inside you will indeed find Scarlets and a few Rhet Butlers to boot.
The home was first built in 1820 as a school. Later, in 1825, Maxwell Chambers and his sister, Rebecca Troy, purchased the home as their house. Dr. Josephus W. Hall, a local doctor and businessman, purchased the home for his family in 1859. The home would remain in the family for many generations to come.
Dr. Hall set about to turn this home into the beauty you still see today. They added the finest French wallpaper money could buy and brought in beautiful furnishings, and it was while the doctor was here that the ironwork you see on the second-story balcony was added. It would stay in the Hall family until the Salisbury historical society purchased the home and furnishings in 1972. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
When you first enter, costumed docents will greet you and take you on a tour of the home. The first room is like a family room, with a few pieces of furniture and walls with only some wallpaper on it to show the original wood walls. You also see a guest bedroom with a magnificent four-poster bed. Upstairs there is the marvelously furnished master bedroom and the children’s room. You also get to walk out on the second-story balcony. Back downstairs there is dining room and formal room. The walls are finished with reproduction wallpaper, stunning crystal chandeliers, antiques, and a table filled with Mrs. Hall’s bone china. In fact, the house is furnished with about 80% of the original family furniture. In the hallway, look up and you will see the ceiling, discovered after a previous one was removed. It has the original Pennsylvania motif. Outside you can tour the gardens, see the kitchen where the slaves would have also lived, and take note of the cannon in the front yard.
Today the house is open to the public and is under the watchful eye of the Historic Salisbury Foundation. They are usually part of the historic homes tour and will be this October. Sometimes the Hall family members do come in from California for the event and to keep an eye on their home. I am sure they must approve of how the foundation has brought their home back to its original grandeur.
The home is truly a must see for those who appreciate history and have a love of elegant grand homes.
Open Saturday & Sunday 1-4.
Admission: $3. Visitor’s center offers a combo trolley tour and homes ticket for $11 (a) $7 (c).
Not handicapped accessible.
Go to www.historicsalisbury.org for more information and to find out about upcoming events.