This small room between the parlor and the dining room was probably an open alcove in the original Vassall House. When Andrew Craigie renovated the House in the late 1790s, he converted this space to an anteroom.

Since the 1790s this space has served as a passage from the dining room to the parlor. This space was later used by the Longfellow family to display various paintings.

In 1917 Alice Longfellow installed the Colonial Revival cabinet, designed by her cousin Alexander W. Longfellow Jr., to exhibit Appleton family ceramics and other family items.