By 1927, Salisbury House neared completion. The Weeks family had moved in the previous year, although the house would not be fully finished until 1928. During this year’s interim, a photographer captured images of the new home’s interior. These photographs, particularly when paired with exterior construction images, make a fascinating early study of the property.
The Weeks family, as we do on our tours today, welcomed visitors to Salisbury House in the Great Hall.
The iconic painting, The Brothers LaBouchere, still dominates the center of the hall, though much of the additional furnishings have been removed today to accommodate our various public events and rentals.
From the Great Hall, visitors typically made their way down the east hallway to the Common Room.
Here in the east hallway hung a painting of special importance. The large-scale piece hanging on the right is Joseph Stella’s Tree of My Life, painted by the artist in 1919-1920. The Weeks family originally acquired three Stella works on a scale similar to Tree of My Life: The Birth of Venus (1922) and The Apotheosis of the Rose (1926), which both can still be seen at Salisbury House today. Tree of My Life, however, was sold at auction at Christie’s in 1986 for $2.2 million.
Lush furnishings, including ornate drapery, also appeared in the Common Room in 1927. However, the custom-made Steinway grand piano, which was later a centerpiece of the room, had yet to arrive from New York.
Lucky guests were also able to visit the library, which remains an extraordinary experience today.
Note the empty shelves behind the hanging tapestry. By the time the Weeks family left Salisbury House in 1954, the library collection had expanded even beyond the library shelves. Eventually, locked cabinet doors were added to the bookshelves adjacent to the fireplace below.
Guests invited to stay for the evening would have likely spent time in the Dining Room as well…
…followed by their morning coffee in the Breakfast Room. A portion of Stella’s Apotheosis of the Rose is visible on the right, where it still hangs.
To view the second floor of Salisbury House, guests in 1927 would have used the main staircase located just off of the Great Hall.
Not long after this photograph was taken, the Weekses added an elaborate runner to the stairs that included their family crest. A sixteenth-century suit of armor eventually replaced the chair pictured here as well.
Upon arriving at the top of the staircase, Carl and Edith would have retired to their bedrooms in the east wing of the house. Edith’s sumptuous bedroom suite, including a dressing room with adjacent bath, reflected her preference for French decor.
Edith’s bedroom was equally lovely.
Carl’s bathroom and bedroom – adjacent to, though not connected, to Edith’s rooms – displayed a much more masculine aesthetic.
The balcony, down the hallway from Carl’s and Edith’s suites, offered a fantastic view of the Great Hall.
A small guest bedroom was accessed from the balcony hall.
Continuing westward down the hallway, the Queen Anne bedroom appeared on the left.
The four bedrooms for the Weeks boys – Charles, William, Hud, and Lafe – were on the west end of the second floor. Hud’s room, for reasons that are lost to us now, included two beds.
Lafe’s room was the smallest of the boys’ bedrooms.
Before our tour of Salisbury House c. 1927 draws to a close: a stop in the Indian Room. This space, located in the basement level of the house, was decorated with Carl’s extensive Native American collection. It was also, or so we are given to believe, used by the boys for some seriously raging parties.
Despite the fact that we are separated from these photographs by nearly a century, we are extraordinarily fortunate that much of the fine artworks and furnishings collected by the Weeks family remains intact today. Be sure to stop by and enjoy a tour c. 2015!
Salisbury House Blog 
2 replies on “A Virtual Tour, c. 1927”
I enjoy the movement towards more of the period decor in place around Salisbury House. $2.2 million in 1986! Incredible. What about a picture of the Indian Room when it was fully furnished?
Another view of the Indian Room in this 1927 series of photos shows an additional couch in the space – but at this time, this is as furnished as the room got!