Virtual Tour: Ballroom
The Ballroom was originally called the Second Drawing Room and contains a range of interesting furniture including some pieces, such as the drop leaf table, which may have come from Fort Townshend - the Governor's residence from 1816-1831. That was a somewhat drafty house and the first resident Governor died there, after Newfoundland (and he in particular) experienced a dreadful winter of cold, fires and poverty, in February of 1818.
The two rosewood sofa tables are from the 1829 inventory and the rosewood chiffonier, recently given to Government House, is reported to have come from an earlier governor and was purchased (as was common with people returning to England after service in Newfoundland in the early 19th century) by a local person and remained at Winterton on Winter Avenue until rescued when fire destroyed that house in 1995.
The upholstered Victorian furniture dates from the 1870-80 and must represent a desire by one of the governors to modernize. This is a very fine suite of furniture with Eastlake style decoration and consists of sofas, armchairs and a large number of delicate drawing-room chairs.
The ceiling in this room is the most elaborate of all Pindikowsky's work in the house and takes it motifs from the Pompeian style fashionable in the 18th century but revived in the 19th.
