SITTING OR RECEIVING:

OBJECTIVE: Drawing on design theory and historical research, this article offers a design analysis and cultural account of a special hall‐as‐room type, the reception hall, as represented in the designs of architect George W. Payne. RESEARCH DESIGN: A source of design for the everyday hall was located: twelve cottage designs of plan book architect George W. Payne, published between 1888 and 1898 in Carpentry and Building. Comparative design analyses along with primary source materials establish criteria for interpreting associational values and social and cultural dimensions of Payne's hall designs. ANALYSIS: George W. Payne's hall designs were compared with other plan book designs and model halls from millwork catalogs and compared with each other in terms of formal design theory (relationships among hall types, circulation patterns, and perceptual qualities). KEY FINDINGS: Payne's cottages illustrate that the reception hall was not reserved for large, expensive houses. In modest houses, Payne often substituted a vestibule for a hall. When the hall became a specialized room, ambiguous meanings emerged, for example, the reception hall could not function as a homey place because of expectations about the social life of the hall. In the end, reception halls favored abundance in architectural treatment, requiring little furnishing. CONCLUSION: Payne's concepts were at odds with social uses of the spaces, for example, sitting or receiving. In spite of the ideals about the hall as another living space, the hall served as a place of contradiction, blending and mixing ambiguity regarding design and behavior.