The House

From 1738 to 1862, Flanders was the center of town before the railroad came in. Seven Hearths differs from other houses in the Flanders Historic District in several ways. First of all is its size. All the houses built in 1738, '39 and '40 at the settling of the town, started with a 16x16-foot unit, a minimum required to be built within three years in order to retain the land bought at auction. These houses expanded as time and success permitted. Seven Hearths, on the other hand, is a second generation house - large houses that were built by the second generation of settlers.

In 1751, John Beebe, Sr., who built the red house just north of Seven Hearths, gave John Jr. three acres at the southwest corner of his land at the time of his marriage. John Jr. laid out a foundation for the house 32' x '52, with a 9'- deep cellar. He built it three stories high with 9-foot high rooms on the two main floors and an equally high attic above. This was a very large building for the period. There are three fireplaces on the first floor of the north chimney, as well as a small one in the upstairs ballroom. The south chimney has three fireplaces as well, hence the name given by the Nelsons - Seven Hearths.

John Beebe, Sr. had an interest in a saw mill on a farm two lots south of his property (Cobble Brook Farm). Two other sons were also builders and all four probably worked together on the construction of the house. They began with the store, office and kitchen as living space, and we believe it took three years to finish the basics of the house, since 1754 was the date found on the south chimney. However, several of the interior features of the upstairs bedrooms, such as moldings and door types, suggest that the entire structure was not finished until the 1780s or '90s. One of the features of Seven Hearths, as well as of John Beebe, Sr.'s house next door, is beautiful paneling throughout. The attic of Seven Hearths is huge and has no ridge pole. It is cross-braced in a very interesting way, which is a source of fascination to architectural researchers. The cellar has a brick partition, which enabled the storage of meats, so the north end of the house has not settled as much as the south. However, the entire house is sound.

Some of the furniture in Seven Hearths is of Kent origin. The little black Windsor chairs in the kitchen came from the Morgan Tavern, across the street, as did the dresser in the upstairs back bedroom. A small rocker is from the South Kent Peet family. The melodeon in the parlor belonged to Vesta Benedict of Ore Hill. As our tour proceeds through the house we will note other pieces of Kent origin. We are always on the look-out for other Kent pieces.

Downstairs

The Studio

This room was originally a general store with the door on the west being the main entrance. In the northwest corner of the cellar below, a door led to a room where carcasses of meat were hung. On the east end of the (now) studio, there was a door to the cellar and a door to the outside, both since removed. The door to the outside opened to the stairs leading to a fur trading post upstairs. The names of the furs and the prices to be used were written on the beams, but have since been covered over.

Noted New York artist George Laurence Nelson bought the house in 1919. It was owned at the time by the Northrop family, whose farm was the next one south. It had been used by tenant farmers and had been vacant for some time. Luckily, it had not been hurt structurally, but needed a lot of cleaning and painting. Laurence Nelson wrote a booklet about the restoration of the house, entitled New Life for Old Timber, which is available for purchase from the Kent Historical Society. Mr. Nelson made this room his studio, putting in the large north window. He was noted for his portraits, painting over 800 of them in his lifetime. We have many of his original works, as well as photographs of others. They are frequently on display throughout the house.

The Small Living Room (or Back Parlor)

We feel that this room, the store and the kitchen were finished first. This room was probably the first bedroom in the house, and became one again when Mrs. Nelson was ill for several years. The soft paneling of the fireplace wall and a Franklin stove made it a cozy living room for winter nights. Although the stove has been removed, many of the remaining furnishings in this room belonged to Laurence and Helen Nelson. The fireplace itself shows evidence of having a later 18th century mantle installed over the original.

The Kitchen

Since the kitchen has nine doors and little wall space, the fireplace had been blocked off by the Nelsons to provide wall room for modern appliances. The wide board floor had been covered with a more modern wood floor, painted red. The Society is currently working on major restoration projects in the kitchen, with the goal of presenting a Colonial kitchen when we are finished. The entire fireplace was torn apart and rebuilt in May of 2005, including the beehive oven to the left. We took a leap of faith and removed the red floor, luckily finding the old 18th century floor intact beneath it. While a few holes had been drilled through it to accommodate the plumbing, the floor is basically in excellent shape. The walls have been repaired and re-plastered, and broken window panes replaced. The kitchen is finally nearing completion.

"Belinda" sits at the kitchen table, attending to her mending, as part of the 2008 costume exhibit "Pulling Kent Out of the Closet: Discovering Our Hidden Treasures." Belinda is the lay figure obtained by Mr. Nelson's father, Carl Hirschberg, from the estate of Asher Durand, the famous 19th century American painter. The figure, made in France in the early 19th century, after the proportions of Venus de Milo, is articulated in every joint, as in the human figure, and can be locked into any position. When painting portraits, artists will often do initial sittings with the actual subject of the portrait, and then use models as they later fill in the detail. Both of Nelson's parents were talented artists as well, so Belinda has undoubtedly had a busy life as a model. She now enjoys a well deserved retirement here at Seven Hearths.

The Front Parlor The paneling of the chimney mantel is especially interesting because of the very large size of the center panel - 40" x 52". The floorboards are original, testified to by the long measurements of the boards, slightly over 11 feet, consistent with the length throughout the house. The arrangement of short and long boards seen here is evident also in other rooms. Floors in the 18th century were laid in courses. The narrow pine boards in the parlor and hall were installed for their greater stability, with an eye to using them as an underlayment for carpeting or floor cloths. The fine woodwork on the walls and fireplace has recently been scraped clean of many layers of paint, and repainted in the document color.

The Hall

Paneling in the hall and stairway reflects the treatment of the other rooms in the house. The big entry door is of special interest as it has one pattern of paneling inside and another on the outside. The door handle is unique since it will open either way it is turned. The stairs have a noticeable tilt to them. It is here that the brick wall in the cellar makes its presence known as the house on the south side of the stair wall has settled. However, the house is perfectly firm.

The Dining Room The paneling in this room is typical of the cabinet work done by the Beebes. It is found also in John Beebe, Sr.'s house across Studio Hill, and in houses the family built later in Concord, NY, near Buffalo. The fireplace in this room has been rebuilt as well. The panes in the south window are reproduction hand-blown glass, while the two west-facing windows contain many of the original panes. However, some of them are badly broken and will need to be replaced.

Upstairs

The Gallery Originally the front (southern) section of this room extended across the house to the east, but was separated from the northern section by a wall, the location of which is still visible. The big front room had been used as a meeting room, a ballroom, and an academy. When the Nelsons bought the house in 1919, there was no plumbing in the house. They shortened the room on the east, making a hallway and a bathroom on the east side and using the remaining smaller room on the west as a bedroom, with its cozy little fireplace. After the Society took over the house, the wall between the northern and southern rooms was removed in order to provide a gallery for exhibits.

The Gallery has just been refurbished, with new wiring, lighting, plaster and paint. It will permanently house the best of Mr. Nelson's artwork, which has also just been conserved. Most of the paintings in this room feature Nelson family members, most noticeably his wife Helen, who is either the subject of or model for many of his paintings.

The Southwest Bedroom Originally there were only two bedrooms upstairs, both on the south side of the house. These rooms are currently undergoing restoration. This front bedroom has a small fireplace, and windows on the south and west sides, making it a cozy spot for a winter afternoon.

The Doctor's Office Dr. John Wesley King was a much loved physician in Kent. His medicine chest, his instruments and his lunch basket that he took with him as he traveled around the community are on display. His brother was also a doctor and a few of his things are included. The artifacts were presented to the Society by his grandchildren. Dr. King planted the large old birch tree on Main Street, which was taken down when the Kent Town Center was built. At the time of its demise, the birch tree was undoubtedly one of the oldest white birches in existence, and marked the site of Dr. King's house.

The Southeast Bedroom The little bedroom at the top of the kitchen stairs is the only room in the house without a fireplace. This is possibly due to the fact that it could have been used in the production of the family's linen. Linen is woven from flax thread, the production of which creates a highly flammable dust. Having a fireplace in the same room would have been too dangerous. But warmth came from the massive chimney in between the east and west bedrooms. Some of the spinning and weaving equipment here is on loan from Kent's Britton family. Others were donated by the Irving family of South Kent, where the late Walter E. Irving had a vast collection of Colonial tools and artifacts.

The Artwork

George Laurence Nelson was a well-known and prolific painter - of portraits, landscapes and still lifes. When he died, he left the house and a huge number of his paintings to the Kent Historical Society. We try to exhibit as much of his artwork as we can on a rotating basis. The Society is now in the process of conserving many of the paintings, which is a long, tedious process, but one that it is our responsibility to carry out. The results of our first efforts are on exhibit throughout the house and are positively stunning. In addition, we have recently donated carefully selected pieces to The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT, The New Britain (CT) Museum of American Art and the Newington-Cropsey Foundation in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.

We also have a good collection of paintings done by his parents, Carl Hirschberg and Alice Kerr-Nelson Hirschberg. Both Hirschbergs were artists, experts at painting children's portraits. Besides doing formal studies, they did many illustrations for books, magazines and calendars as a basic means of earning income. After his mother's death, Laurence and his father had a summer art school in Kent. Mr. Hirschberg did a number of landscape paintings of Kent, as well as portraits and studies of children. The family was full of talent!

The Grounds

The Nelsons had very beautiful gardens. Helen Nelson was an authority on gardening and wrote articles for current magazines. Laurence Nelson was challenged by the painting of flowers and did endless studies of them. He then used the studies to create the beautiful large floral still lifes, of which we have three. He also used the studies to include flowers in many of his portrait and landscape paintings. Periodically these studies are exhibited in the house. We are in the process of trying to replant many of his favorite flowers in the garden, based on a pencil drawing of the yard and much evidence in his paintings, and have made good progress toward that goal. Nelson also built many stone walls and walkways around the yard, and we are slowly restoring them as well.

An early water supply for the house was a large cistern to the south of the back door. The wooden gutter drained into this cistern, which we have left in place. Another supply is evidenced by the large pulley in the ceiling of the back vestibule off the kitchen, which was used to draw water from a well now under the vestibule floor.

The original outhouse, with three seats, is still on the property. Early barns have disappeared, but their locations may be guessed at by looking at some old foundations, which Nelson later incorporated into his garden designs. We hope you have enjoyed your tour of Seven Hearths.

Thank you for dropping by!