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walls are decorated with the works of several of the ancient painters from the Italian, Dutch and Flemish schools, many of which are of great merit". Arranged and decorated in a style rare in America there are pictures, medallions, bronzes etc. In 1797, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841) visited Hamilton's home and declared it to be Philadelphia's equivalent to the Villa Borghese in Rome: "Its situation is one of the most beautiful that one could see. "The Only Rival I have Known in America to what may be seen in England" The south side of the ballroom opens up onto the terrace of the Doric portico with four columns supporting a pediment and views over the lawns and down to the Schuylkill, cleverly reflected in the French windows (glass doors) that separate indoors from out. To the left of the ballroom is the library that leads directly back on to the oval dining room and to the right is the study that leads back in the same way to the oval parlor. Entry is made into the vestibule/reception hall crown by a domed ceiling that gives immediate access to the three principal reception rooms and staircase on a center hall plan: to the left is the oval dining room to the right the oval drawing room (both with floor-to-ceiling Palladian bay windows) and, directly ahead of the hall is the ballroom/grand salon with opposite apsidal ends, one containing a marble statue of Antinous and the other a bronze of Apollo in pursuit of Daphne. The perfectly symmetrical house is approached via the north front with its six Ionic pilasters and ornamented pediment.
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