The alcove parlor is named after the alcove, which is a historic bed recess or small adjoining room with a sleeping accommodation. Alcoves were warmer than freestanding beds and provided greater privacy. The alcove paneling, made of oak around 1750, comes from a house in the former "Neue Vorstadt" (Hebelstrasse) in Basel.
The other furnishings of the alcove room also came to this house from upscale bourgeois houses in Basel. The wallpaper of the room was printed with old wooden models presumably from the Ryhinersche Indienne factory.