Historical Society Opens New 'Home' to Public Saturday

The keepers of Kent's history will present their to the public with an open house Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at the Clapp Woodward House at 237 E. Main St.

More than 30 volunteers and an estimated 1,000 hours or more of volunteer work in the past six months have prepared the house for . The house, which has about 4,000 square feet, was built in 1883 on land deeded by Zenas Kent to his daughter, Harriet Kent Clapp.

The opening coincides with the society's 4oth anniversary, which was marked last month. In 1971, a small group of volunteers formed the society to buy and restore the former Erie Railroad depot, which today is home to the restaurant.

"This is the first time in 40 years that the historical society has actually had ‘a home,’" Kent Historical Society Board President Sandra Halem said. "We preserved and saved the depot and made it our headquarters on the second floor because it was paid for. But it was not really a home. It was a depot. And I don’t think that people had an emotional attachment as they will to this ‘home.’

"When you walk into this ‘home,’ everybody has the same reaction," Halem said. "They are just blown away by how elegant it was in its day, and how elegant it has been restored as a real ‘home.’”

At the depot, Halem said the society was very limited because it didn't have much display space and had even less storage space. In 2005, the society relocated to a house on South Water Street where the group rented space. But there, the society encountered other problems — mainly, a huge influx of artifacts that turned potential museum display space into storage.

Now, the society has several hundred artifacts and an estimated few thousand photographs. And, with its new home, the group has the space to rotate exhibits more frequently.

"I think people will be really excited to see so many new things that now we can actually exhibit," Halem said. "Now, everything won’t be out, but everything will be rotated on a more regular basis."

None of which could have been possible without all the volunteers and their efforts.

Tom Hatch, the society's administrator, said they can only estimate the volunteers spent 1,000 hours getting the house ready.

"It is a huge number," Hatch said. "Especially because we’ve had a lot of volunteers working on cleaning and restoring the woodwork. And that’s an ongoing process that won’t be finished for months. They’ve probably put in 300 hours already just on the woodwork alone."

Different committees comprising board members and some of the society's more than 400 members tackled different aspects of the move. One committee worked to repaint — using historically accurate colors — while another raised money for the move, another committee moved artifacts while another packed and unpacked artifacts.

"It’s been amazing to me," Halem said. "I don’t think even in the depot there was this detail of volunteerism among board members and volunteers."

And it hasn't been all volunteers. More than 150 people and organizations donated money to the society to help pay the $275,000 purchase cost in December and raise another $100,000 to renovate and update the building.

But the work isn't quite finished. New carpet was installed Monday. Wallpaper will be put up today, curtains come Wednesday and a mock-up of the new model train layout will be set up Thursday.

Hatch said they will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony or some other gesture at noon to dedicate the opening of the new house.

"We’re going to be working down to the wire," Hatch said. "It does mark the end of the transition. There’s more to do, but we’ll be up and running.

"I think people will be as excited about it as we are," he said. "It’s going to be a real addition to the town, and a museum that really tells the story of Kent."