Historical Society moving to new home in old building

KENT — The Kent Historical Society is moving to a new home, in an appropriately old building. Executive Director Margaret Smith said the society is in the midst of moving from Swift House, on Route 341 just east of Route 7, to the recently acquired Tallman House property on Studio Hill Road north of the town center.In 1978 the Historical Society inherited Seven Hearths, which was built in 1751. It took several years for the work to get under way but the society is now restoring the home and converting it to a museum.Seven Hearths is a prized possession, but it also presents challenges. For one, it is located on a lot about one half acre in size with no parking area. Because of its location outside the town center, it has only been open to the public on weekends during two months every summer.Meanwhile, the Historical Society has been outgrowing Swift House, which is owned by the town. Swift House does not provide adequate space to display exhibits. Many of the society’s possessions remain hidden from public view.To gain more space and to put the society’s office closer to Seven Hearths, the Historical Society purchased Tallman House, which is on property adjacent to Seven Hearths. This new acquisition will provide parking for Seven Hearths visitors and additional space for Historical Society displays and exhibits. The Historical Society office will move to Tallman House, which will make it possible for visitors to tour Seven Hearths all year long.“The new office and proximity to Seven Hearths will also provide better care and housing for our textile collection,” Smith said. “The move is taking all of our time and it is taking a long time,” she added. “Logistically we have to make the move very carefully. With the Tallman House space no bigger than what we have here, we have to plan very carefully. It is really choreographed, planning what goes in where and when.” As part of the move, a historic structures report was done on Seven Hearths, with help from a grant from the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. Hudson Valley Preservation was hired to do the in-depth look at the building.“That was fun,” Smith said of the study, “because we not only wanted to look at the bones of the building to see if they were in good shape structurally, we also looked for physical evidence of the history of the house, of what had been going on in the house.”Smith was especially excited by one finding. A Hudson Valley Preservation worker used a special digital camera with a lens at the end of a long probe. The probe was inserted into a hole in the ceiling to see what might be hidden above. To everyone’s delight, the camera provided evidence of one former use of the building.Smith said there are some records indicating Seven Hearths had once been used as a fur trading facility. The digital camera found a hidden beam with the word “mink” written on it. Smith suspects this indicates mink pellets were stored on the floor underneath that word.This information also indicates that the ceiling of the room was installed some years after it had been used for fur trading in colonial times.“Now we are searching for additional written records to back up some of the research findings,” Smith said.In searching for evidence of life at Seven Hearths, Historical Society research found several people who knew how the house had been used in years gone by. For most of the 19th century, the house had apparently been divided into two apartments. It was later restored to a one-family home.Ester Pollard, a Sharon resident, had uncles who were born at Seven Hearths in the 1880s. And two sisters have been found (one is in Brookfield, the other is in Danbury) whose mother, Helen Segar, was born in 1904 at Seven Hearths.While the historic structure report yielded numerous valuable and interesting findings, Smith feels there are still many missing references yet to be found. For example, there are mentions of a Flanders Academy. To date, the Historical Society has not been able to identify any documents concerning such a school. Smith said she would love to hear from anyone who might be able to help with this quest.Call 860-927-4587 or visit www.kenthistoricalsociety.org.

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