"Martin Hall" 



The House of James E. Martin, Esq., Great Neck, New York 



HE house of Mr. James E. Martin, at Great Neck, Long Island, is very beautifully 

 placed on a high cliff that rises abruptly above Little Neck Bay. It is a stately 

 building in black and red brick, with white terra-cotta trimmings. The corners have 

 channeled pilasters, and in the center of the entrance front is a porte-cochere, two 

 stories in height, supported by Ionic columns. On the right is a long wing containing the 

 kitchen and service rooms, and built out on the cliff on which the house stands, so that on the 

 opposite side it has a lower story with a service entrance. 



On the water-front the whole of the first story is arcaded, except in the center, with porches 

 within the arches; the walls are supported by piers, with columns at the entrances. In the 

 middle is a large portico, the full height of the house, with a rounded center. Arcaded porches 

 are also built at each end. 



The main entrance is by the door under the porte-cochere. It opens into a vestibule-like 

 passage, which, however, is not shut off from the interior; on each side is a passage leading to 

 a small room. Directly in face is the great central hall, which serves both as living-room and 

 reception-room. A short passage, with niches on either side, connects the vestibule with it. 



The hall is very large, two stories in height, and entirely surrounded with a gallery sup- 

 ported on arches. The stairs rise in pleasant curves on either side of the entrance doorway, and 

 form one of the most striking features of this great room. It is an apartment dominated, in a 

 very unusual degree, by the very extensive woodwork that enters into its construction. This is 

 painted white, and the walls and panels of the ceiling are red. Round columns support the 

 arches of the lower story, which have broad moulded faces and ornamented keystones or 

 cartouches. Similar arches are applied to the wall beneath the gallery, and the doors are 

 surmounted with broken curved pediments. The gallery round the upper floor has a beautiful 

 spindle rail, with slightly projecting balconies in the center of three sides, and channeled 

 columns behind it, with pilasters on the wall, uphold the ceiling. This is arranged in panels 

 with moulded beams and a central skylight. A fireplace is at the farther end on each side 

 under the gallery. Metal lamps hang from the ceiling in the upper gallery, which in itself is an 

 upper room, beautifully furnished and with many small pictures and other decorative objects 

 on the walls. 



The dining-room is on the right, and is two steps lower down than the great hall. The 

 woodwork is white, the walls yellow. There is a high paneled wainscoting supporting curved 

 shelves, on which are placed many fine specimens of blue and white porcelain. The ceiling 



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