The Hall reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Hall

Hall is a term often used to refer to several different types of room in a house or a building.

This is either a long, narrow room which serves purely as an access to other rooms. This type of hall is also called a corridor, a passage, or a hallway. As an extension of this, the front entranceway or entrance room of the house is also often called the hall because it serves as an access to the main part of the house (also called the entry hall). In office buildings and larger buildings (theatres, cinemas etc), the entry room is generally known as the foyer or the atrium.

The term hall can be used to refer to some kinds of building in their entirety, for example a Meeting hall, or a Church hall. Again, presumably this is because the building serves as a gathering place and it is generally a large empty space with minimal furnishings and decoration.

Hall is also the short form of the name of the medieval German town Schwäbisch Hall, and was its only name prior to 1933. Here Hall is related to the production of salt.

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