West Wall

East Wall

This parlor, known as the library, is perhaps the most versatile room in the Gibson House, performing at least three distinct functions. It was used as a place for family conversation and study. In 1924, Rosamond Warren Gibson wrote her memoirs in this room while sitting on the tufted Turkish sofa of red mohair, a favorite reading place of hers. The library was also used as an after-dinner retreat, where male guests smoked and socialized before joining the female guests in the music room. Finally, it likely served as the home office of Charles Sr., who worked as a cotton broker in Boston. Typical of his profession, Charles would spend afternoons at home working and receiving guests after the markets closed in the mid-afternoon.

On either side of the fireplace are two black walnut bookcases that, according to Charles Jr., “have been there since the house was built . . . [and on which] . . . the original blue silk still remains in the glass doors.”

Family portraits and other prints decorate the walls. A drawing of Charles Hammond Gibson Jr. hangs over the mantel, which is flanked by portraits of his parents, Charles Hammond Gibson Sr. and Rosamond Warren Gibson.

Lighting is by table lamps and a pair of electrified gas sconces flanking the mantelpiece. The gasolier was removed in the 1890s when the house was electrified.