“A Time Quite as Great as Ours”: The Joshua Hempsted House in the Twentieth Century

“Outside was the headlong, bewildered twentieth century, crushing down all that stood in its way. Here, in this garden and house, was a fragment, an islet, of a time quite as great as ours, with thoughts as deep and hopes as high.”[1] 

– Odell Shepard, 1953

In December 1953, Odell Shepard’s “Hempstead House: It Needs Our Help” was published in the Connecticut Antiquarian. His argument – brief but persuasive – urged the increasingly indifferent community of New London to take back ownership of its important built heritage. The city’s old Hempsted House on Jay Street was falling into disrepair, desperately in need of the public’s help to “protect it as best we can from all change.”[2] 

Shepard’s article was consciously tying into the slow-growing but passionate movement in twentieth-century American culture known as historic preservation. Largely mobilized by local citizen groups who valued the cultural, historic and patriotic sites in their communities, the will to conserve and preserve old structures such as Hempsted House was driven by passionate instigators at the local level.

In this, the old Hempsted home had an ally: Anna Hempsted Branch (1875–1937), the last family member to live in the house and a dedicated steward of its preservation. Anna was the daughter of Mary Lydia Bolles Branch (1840–1922) and John Locke Branch (1842–1909), both active abolitionists who lived in the house in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Anna and her mother were not only interested in tracing their genealogy, collecting antiques and studying colonial times, but in effect became some of the earliest figures in Connecticut to embrace what is now known as the Colonial Revival movement.

 

Image: Anna Hempsted Branch (left), and Mary Lydia Bolles Branch, ca. 1875 (right)

Colonial Revivalism was a national expression of early American culture, primarily celebrating the built and artistic heritage of East Coast architecture and the decorative arts. In its heyday from 1880 to 1940, proponents of the movement attempted to emulate the values of democracy, patriotism, good taste, and moral superiority through their built surroundings – all qualities which expressed, to many, the visions of the country’s earliest settlers. Writers such as Elsie de Wolfe and Edith Wharton urged homeowners to simplify their interiors and present a more harmonious unity with the architectural background. Authenticity of ornament and an accurate understanding of historical styles resulted in homes such as Hempsted House, where Anna saw to it that “no unseemly innovations were introduced into her family’s ancient homestead. [3] Early photographs of the house’s interiors exemplify this ethos of colonial simplicity: the seventeenth-century hall of Joshua Hempsted I, for instance, retained its early colonial furniture and feel, as did most other rooms in the house. 

Image: The seventeenth-century hall of Hempsted House, ca. 1920

Anna never married, dying in 1937 and leaving the building to the Antiquarian & Landmarks Society (now known as Connecticut Landmarks). The house became the Society’s first property, officially opening to the public in its new guise as an historic house museum on May 15, 1958. Surely, Anna and the long line of Hempsted ancestors preceding her would be proud to know that their family home remains a monument in New London to this day.

[1] Odell Shepard, “Hempstead House: It Needs Our Help,” The Connecticut Antiquarian, 5 (1953): 14.  

[2] Ibid.  

[3] Hempsted House Tour Guide.

Louisa Brouwer is a material culture scholar who has recently written a revised four-period furnishing plan for the Joshua Hempsted House in New London, Connecticut. She currently works at the Yale University Art Gallery as the Israel Sack, Inc., Archives Fellow in the department of American Decorative Arts.

The Writers’ Block students first impressions of the Hempsted House

[Note:  As part of our interpretive planning process, the planning team is working with a group of young students from The Writers’ Block, to learn more about their impressions about museums and how they would prefer to experience them.  On July 30 they will be presenting the stories of the house with the public during an open house, the details of which will follow in an additional blog post.] 

The students gathered at the house for the first time on June 25th. Many knew very little about the House, so this was our opportunity to hear their preconceptions. From the beginning they understood that the House is very old, but they had no idea how old. Anywhere from 1640 to 1850 would have made sense to them. Some had heard that the House was haunted and some knew that a slave had lived there.

We asked the students about their past museum experiences. In retrospect this was a trick question since many did not think of a historic house as a museum. In fact the students’ answers suggest that they do see historic houses in a different category. While the kids had gone to science museums and art museums, they also gave examples of monuments – the Statue of Liberty and Lincoln Memorial.

The kids are right.

Many historic houses are presented as monuments and not museums.  How often have you been to a historic house interpreted through:

• Discussions of the architecture
• Lists of who lived here when
• What they might have done in each room
• How the house’s occupants would have used this antique candle holder that the curator bought last year

Often what is lacking is a broader context: community, moment in history, theme – the basic building blocks of a museum exhibition.

As the students explored the Hempsted House, they enjoyed playing- “what is that?” and, “Can you uncover the story of this house?” Then it was time to give  them some historical context. It was 11:30 in the morning, 92 degrees and humid outside. We told them the basic history of the house, who lived here and when.  We tried to add a little variety into the program with a timeline activity. I brought a bright red 8’ by 1’ board on a stand with a lot of stickers and asked the kids for help. They could put what every dates they wanted between 1630 and 2013. We helped identify dates of major events the kids brought up. My hope had been that the kids might see this as theirs. They might put their own birthday or 9/11 or some anything that had meaning in their lives. It was not to be. While they participated, the students, from 11 to 17, did not include any dates with personal meaning. I then realized that, for them, so far, this was school without air-conditioning.

Many of the kids did start to participate in a discussion, or at least ask some questions when it came time to talk about Colonial slavery. The story is complex and different from place to place. Many students and Writers Block staff had made assumptions like – there must have been a number of slaves at this house, they would have lived outside of the main house, the slaves would have eaten different food. While none of these are true at the Hempsted property, they might have been true right down the road in 1730.

So what is the difference between the life of the Hempsted family and the life of Adam Jackson? To me (a father of two in his mid 40’s) it is family. Joshua Hempsted does everything he can to provide for his children, while denying Adam Jackson even the hope of family. Even if Adam could have children, his offspring would be born into bondage. We know that in the coming weeks the students and Writers Block staff will pull apart slavery, and there are many directions they can choose to explore. My hope is that at some point this will no longer feel like school.   

Robert Kiihne of RK Exhibits will be participating in the teen audience research this summer and will draft the exhibitions component of the interpretive plan in the fall.

Three Different Starting Points

African American families may bring very different attitudes about slavery to the Hempsted House. In my last post I talked about the young man that felt ashamed of slavery until he came to know Adam Jackson. Recently, I had the opportunity to hear two other local African American perspectives on slavery. 

Megan Sandberg Zakian, Danny Glover (who performed in "Roots of Liberty"), Debra Wise, and Catherine Carr Kelly. Photo: A.R. Sinclair Photography.

The large and active Haitian community in greater Boston recently provided a very different perspective. On Saturday, May 4, 2013, a theatrical performance produced by Underground Railway Theater entitled, "Roots of Liberty – The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War" made connections between Haiti’s successful slave rebellion and the American Civil War.  The Tremont Temple Baptist Church was packed with over 1400 people, with the performance in presented in both English and Creole. For Haitian Americans, the history of slavery is linked to freedom and self-determination.

A family friend provides yet another perspective. This young woman is the daughter of immigrants from Uganda. While attending high school here in Concord, Massachusetts in 2008, she sat in a classroom one day and learned about American slavery. The teacher that day kept looking at her and addressing the content to her as if this was a very personal story. After a short while she had enough and interrupted, “Why are you looking at me? I am from Africa and my ancestors were not slaves. You should know that.” She relayed the event that night to my family. Remembering that story I asked her recently: Was she interested in learning about slavery in the United States? Was it relevant to her in some way? She told me that it was interesting to her, and that some of her friends had asked her to go to the theatrical presentation on Haiti's history on May 4th with them.

The interpretation of the Hempsted house must make room for visitors coming with very different perspectives of slavery.  What is also clear is how powerful telling that story could be.

Robert Kiihne of RK Exhibits will be participating in the teen audience research this summer and will draft the exhibitions component of the interpretive plan in the fall.