Hale House gets makeover, recognition

KINGSTON – The Hale House in Matunuck this summer underwent an exterior restoration and was named to the National Register of Historic places, the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society announced this week.
The house was built in 1873 as a summer home for Edward Everett Hale, a Boston minister, writer and lecturer, PHS said. Hale also served as chaplain of the U.S. Senate.
After it was gifted to PHS in 2006, the society started the effort to restore the house and grounds “much as it had looked in the 1890s.” The work, which includes a new paint job and rebuilding of the building’s porches, was partially financed by a grant from the R.I. Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, PHS said.
The red used to paint the house – which is known as the “Red House” – is intended to resemble the color used by the Hales in the 1890s.
In the past two years, PHS has completed exterior- and interior-finish analysis and a landscape study and plan in attempts to recreate the building’s past. PHS members also have transcribed a “significant portion” of Hale’s 3,000 letters in the U.S. Library of Congress. A furnishing plan is ongoing, PHS said.
“The study of Hale and his diverse and talented family provide a unique window into the social and artistic world of late-19th- and early-20th-century America,” PHS President and Hale House Committee Chairman Sanford Neuschatz said in a statement. “It is especially exciting to view that world within the context of the cultural landscape of Matunuck.”
An open house is scheduled for Oct. 19 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Pettaquamscutt Historical Society Inc., located on Kingstown Road in Kingston, was founded in 1958. For additional information, visit www.pettaquamscutt.org.