Small Parlor

The Small Parlor to the north of the front door has been used for formal entertaining since the Mansion was completed in 1856. Governors and their families have received their guests in this room over the years. Marcelle Lively-Hamer, the author of a brochure on the Mansion during the Allred administration, referred to this room as the “Reception Suite”.

The room has retained its original dimensions and exposures. In the early twentieth century, the parlors were made more formal by adding plaster cove moldings at the ceiling, changing the mantel to an elegantly carved design and including a large tilted mirror overmantel mirror. This mantel probably replaced a simpler mantel like the one now in the Mansion Library. Most of the pieces seen in the Small Parlor today were acquired by Friends of the Governor’s Mansion during the 1979-1982 Mansion restoration-renovation.