Unique Experiences

Item Description

The challenge -- you've acquired a historic old house and want to really get to know it. The rooms are painted with latex, and electricity and plumbing have been modernized and bathrooms installed. The house seems sturdy, but you want to know more. You are just one in a long line of owners, responsible for the care of this unique building. How do you go about researching and learning about its past? Who else has lived in it? What are their stories? A title search in the land records will tell you who owned the house when, but it won't help you to add details to the story that will make your historic house into a historic home. What else can you do? The staff at the Kent Historical Society will give you some ideas. Start with an insider's journey through the "rediscovery" of the complex history of "Seven Hearths", a pre-Revolutionary house in the Flanders Historic District of Kent, CT. Seven Hearths was bequeathed to the society by its long time owner, noted New York artist, George Laurence Nelson. He had bought the house in 1919, and invested a great deal of time in its restoration. Fortunately for posterity, Nelson respected the ancient bones of the house and documented his process in an essay entitled "New Life for Old Timber". In that essay, he noted where he had removed walls, converted rooms, and even where he had covered up the names of fur pelts chalked on some beams upstairs. The Kent Historical Society has a treasure in board member Jeffrey Morgan, whose passion and profession is restoring historic houses. He is currently juggling several aspects of discovery in Seven Hearths. He is carefully removing layers of paint in each room, documenting the age of the paint and the stories that each layer can tell him. With help of fellow board member Roger Gonzales and another old house expert Mark Peterson, Morgan has uncovered the original kitchen floor, found the location of the original attic stairs, determined the configuration of the original windows and door on the west wall, and much more. In the meantime, he and Curator Marge Smith have been researching the history of the house& its occupants. Going through census and probate records, reading old diaries, tracking down descendants and talking to town old timers, they are uncovering a treasure trove of information about the lives lived in Seven Hearths.

Item Special Note

You may bring friends, but we ask that no more than six people attend so that we will have plenty of time to carefully answer all of the questions that we know will arise.

The successful bidder will receive a written confirmation and/or certificate of purchase.

Terms and Conditions:
* Certificate expires one year after date issued
* Certificate must be used on a single day only
* Certificate cannot be combined with any other certificate, gift cards, offers, or packages
* Certificate will not be replaced if lost or stolen
* Certificate has no cash value
* Certificate needs to be surrendered at the time of the visit