Historical society to make "gift" of Edward Everett Hale House Providence Journal Bulletin

December 6, 2005 Arline Fleming, Journal Staff Writer

Providence Journal Bulletin, December 6, 2005

By Arline Fleming

Journal Staff Writer

SOUTH KINGSTOWN--

If all goes as planned, the Edward Everett Hale House, the Matunuck summer home of the author of "The Man Without a Country," could become a museum operated by the Kingston-based Pettaquamscutt Historical Society.

An anonymous donor has stepped up to not only purchase the 1873 house, which sits above Route 1, but also to deed it to the society, fund renovations and provide base operational funding for five years, said the society's director, Christopher P.  Bickford.

It is expected that the sale of the 11-bedroom Victorian, with views of the ocean,and which sits next door to the Robert Beverly Hale Library, will be completed this month, said Bickford.  In a recent society newsletter, Bickford wrote that the owner, Evelyn Steere, "agreed to sell the house to an individual donor, pending satisfaction that the building and grounds can be renovated for future use as a seasonal museum and historic site."

That donor, said Bickford, who approached the society with the project, "wished to remain anonymous."

The society has applied to the town for a change in zoning, Bickford said.

"We are putting ourselves before the town, and hope we have built up enough credibility over the past few years."

The historical society, founded in 1958, has about 300 members.

Bickford said access to the museum would be seasonal, and it would perhaps also be the site of recitals , and teas.  "The site alone may not be enough to attract significant amounts of visitors," he said.

Although Hale, who was born in Boston in 1822, and spent summers in Matunuck, was a significant and prolific writer of his era, Bickford said he isn't as well known today.  Though best known for The Man Without a Country, the story of Philip Nolan, who was condemned to spend his life in naval vessels after wishing to never hear of the United States again, Hale actually wrote more than 150 works and was a constant contributor to newspapers and magazines.

He was drawn to Matunuck, Bickford said, by way of his friend, William B. Weeden, a Providence manufacturer who lived on the other side of what is now Route 1, or the Commodore Perry Highway.

The house was built "as a summer retreat for an extraordinarily prolific author and prominent Unitarian minister," wrote Bickford.

It was used by the Hale family for the next seven decades and acquired by the Steere family in 1954.

The three-and-a-half story gambrel-roof house, with two gable dormers and an ell at the rear, has multiple red window shutters--each carved with an H--and backs up onto Wash Pond, (also listed on one map as Walsh Pond.)  The house, with an acre and a half  of land, is listed with Lila Delman Real Estate, Narragansett, for $795,000.  An agent there,

John Hodnett, said the structure has always been used as a summer house.  He said he expects closing to take place by the end of December.

An auction was held at the house in November, and the donor purchased most of the major pieces of furniture believed to be in place during Hale's time.  The house, said Bickford, "is very sound and the layout is basically original."

The neighboring Hale Library was built in 1896 as a memorial to Hale's son, Robert, who died at age 26.  The young man reportedly died after consuming contaminated water and his friends were apparantly so devastated that they banded together to raise the library in his name.

Edward Everett Hale died in Massachusetts in 1909.  He was a grandnephew of NathanHale, an American Revolutionary spy who is reported to have said as he faced the gallows:  "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

In the recent Pettaquamscutt Historical Society newsletter, Bickford wrote:

"In the expectation that all of the necessary hurdles in the project will be overcome, the Society looks forward to sharing the house and its history with the community and the larger public.  If we succeed in acquiring the house, we hope to complete renovation by the spring of 2007 in time for full summer season."