Richmond Room, 1810. American. Gift of Joe Kindig Jr., 1968 (68.137).

The art of ancient Greece and Rome exerted a profound influence on European architecture and interior decoration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The practice of freely adapting classical motifs to contemporary needs increasingly gave way to the duplication of forms, especially those from ancient Greece. By 1810 this elaborate "Neoclassical" style had become identified with the Napoleonic Empire and had begun to alter American design. Architects and furniture designers working in the style from the 1810s to the 1840s constantly drew upon antique sources and developed elaborate, richly ornamented forms.

The restrained, unembellished facade and low hip roof of the Williams house are features of early Neoclassical or Federal period domestic architecture, which flourished in the United States from the 1780s until about 1810. This Neoclassical style was derived from the buildings of the British architects Robert and James Adam, whose designs were known in the United States through The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (London, 1773–1822) as well as other British pattern books, such as those of William Pain. The architect of the Williams house is not known, but it is possible that it was either planned by Alexander Parris (1780–1852) or heavily based on his designs. It was not uncommon in the period for master carpenters to draw upon existing architectural plans in constructing a house, thus avoiding the added expense of commissioning a new design. Parris is best known for his later Greek Revival work, but during his stay in Richmond (1810–13) the main inspiration for his building still was the work of Boston architect Charles Bulfinch (1763–1844), a proponent of the Adamesque Neoclassical style. An early sketch for the Governor's Mansion bears a striking resemblance to Bulfinch's 1796 design for the first Harrison Gray Otis house in Boston.

According to the original plans of the house, a visitor would have entered through the main door into a hall and turned left to enter the parlor now installed in the Museum. The influence of later Neoclassical design is evident in this room in the monumental scale of the doorways, the Greek style palmettes decorating their friezes, the simple but heavy moldings, and the inclusion of a paneled dado. Highly unusual but in tune with this aesthetic is the use of somber mahogany woodwork and King of Prussia marble for the baseboard. The master carpenter who made this exquisitely crafted woodwork, clearly proud of his achievement, carved his name, Theo Nash, Executor, above one of the doorways.

The Richmond Room is furnished with some of the most high-style pieces in the American Wing, including the work of New York City cabinetmakers Duncan Phyfe (1768–1856) and Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779–1819). The Scottish-born Phyfe based much of his work on English Regency models, while Lannuier, who learned his trade in Paris before coming to New York in 1803, produced furniture in the latest French Empire styles. The seating furniture here, including the set of chairs and sofa, exemplifies the fashion for antiquity, as can be seen in the "Grecian-cross" legs modeled after antique curule chairs. Chairs with cross-legs at the front and back had been made in France and England and published in pattern books, but the placement of the legs at the sides was a variation favored by New York furniture makers. Although these objects did not belong to Williams, they are representative of the type of furnishings that a man as wealthy and sophisticated as he would have acquired for his parlor.