All cooking at Latta Plantation was done in a kitchen house, as was the case on most plantations of the time period. This means the dining room was solely for the serving and consumption of food.

When you enter the dining room from the parlor the fireplace is straight ahead on the house's back wall. Its hearth is granite, while the other three fireplaces all have brick hearths. Granite was used here because it holds the heat longer and food could be kept warm easier by being placed on a granite hearth. The black tin item on the right of the hearth is a plate warmer.

The dining room setup, like other rooms in the house, varies by season. In the above picture, there is a pot of fresh smelling herbs sitting in the fireplace. This is the way the room appears in summer. However, it is still not quite the way the Lattas would have done things. They might have put flowers or herbs in the fireplace for decorative reasons, since there would be no actual fires there for heating. More likely, the herbs would have been scattered all over the floor of both the dining room and the parlor, and perhaps other rooms. Walking across the herbs would release their aroma. When herbs were used like this, they served as room refreshers and to repelled flies and other insects (window screens had not yet been invented). These herbs were called "strewing herbs" and included plants such as tansy, lemon balm, rosemary, and lemon verbena.

The way the table is set also varies with the seasons. In the picture at the left, the place setting in the foreground is set in the winter style, and the one in the background in the summer style. In the summer plates, silver, and glassware were upside down until immediately before use so that flies could not walk on them.

The china in the picture is a common pattern from Leeds, England. The silverware belonged to Robert, James' son and Jane's stepson.

The white cone is sugar. Sugar was sold in this form and had to be sliced into cubes using sugar cutters, the handles of which may be seen just behind the cone.

The dining room table is a drop leaf table with two banquet ends. In the previous picture showing the table top, the leaves are down so that the table is at its smallest size and is suitable for use by two diners. When the leaves are up and the two banquet ends are added, the table is far more expansive and takes up much of the dining room. One of the banquet ends may be seen in the photo to the left.

Also, in this photo, the mirror has been covered with cheesecloth. In the summer all mirrors are covered this way. If the mirror was uncovered and a fly should walk across it, there is a possibility little black spots called fly specks would be left behind. Since they did not have good glass cleaning chemicals, it was much easier to cover mirrors than attempt to clean them. No covering was needed over the mirrors in cold weather since the windows were closed and no flies were around.

The dining room also contains a very well fashioned sideboard. It has a key lock, and things that might "disappear," such as sugar when there were no adults around to keep an eye on the children, would be locked in the sideboard.

On the outside wall, near the fireplace, a popular print of George Washington and his family is hung. This print is based on a painting by Thomas Savage. It was printed from 1790 until 1830, and if every copy that was ever made was still in existence in 1830, there was one for every four people living in the United States at that time. It is, probably, the most popular print ever as far as percentage of penetration of the population goes.

The dining room was the most used room in the house, and if you look at the wear in the floors, you become easily convinced of that statement.