HALL, in architecture, a large room at the entrance of a fine house and palace. Vitruvius mentions three kinds of halls: the tetrastyle, with four columns, supporting the platform or ceiling; the Corinthian, with columns all round let into the wall, and vaulted over; and the Egyptian, which had a peristyle of insulated Corinthian columns, bearing a second order with a ceiling.
The hall is properly the finest as well as first member of an apartment; and in the houses of ministers of state, magistrates, &c. is the place where they dispatch business, and give audience. In very magnificent buildings, where the hall is larger and loftier than ordinary, and placed in the middle of the house, it is called a saloon.
The length of a hall should be at least twice and a quarter its breadth; and in great buildings, three times its breadth. As to the height of halls, it may be two thirds of the breadth; and, if made with an arched ceiling, it will be much handsomer, and less liable to accidents by fire. In this case, its height is found by dividing its breadth into six parts, five of which will be the height from the floor to the under side of the key of the arch.