The first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621 didn’t happen in a dedicated dining room with custom furniture and a chandelier as a focal point. Most meals then happened at a handmade wooden table that sat in the center of a multifunctional room with a hearth that was used for both cooking and staying warm.

“In the early days, dining rooms in New England homes weren’t a separate architectural concept,” said Dane Austin , owner of Dane Austin Design in Boston, who serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Boston Architectural College School of Interior Architecture. “Meals were taken in multi-use rooms that prioritized warmth and function — they were the literal social center of the home.”

The formal dining room of Civry Vaughan’s home, built in 1900, features original woodwork, buil

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