Nathanael Greene Homestead
50 Taft St.
Coventry, Rhode Island
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| image: Nathanael Greene Homestead |
Since May 4 was Rhode Island Independence Day, Bear and I decided to take in the commemoration at Nathanael Greene Homestead. For those who don't know, Nathanael Greene was a General in the Revolutionary War. Although self-taught in military practice - and a Quaker - his talent brought him to the position of General Washington's right-hand.
Before the war, Nathanael Greene, his wife Caty and their children lived in the house, near the family's forge. Because he was self-taught, Greene insisted on teaching the workers' children to read. And so the place was called "Spell Hall."
For the Rhode Island Independence Day celebration, General Greene (center, wearing the original Kentish Guard uniform, modeled after the British uniforms of the day) and two Rhode Island troops guard the door.
We took a tour of the interior, and learned a lot about General Greene, and even more about Caty, who led just as interesting a life.
As we mentioned before, General Greene was a Quaker. Or he started as a Quaker, until he was invited to leave because of his service in the army, which is called being "read out of meeting." So his taste ran to the plain and functional.
We started the tour in what would have been the dining room. The guide was quick to point out that almost nothing was original to the room, with the exception of the tea samovar on the sideboard. This was a wedding gift to Caty. We heard often about how Caty was a bit of a "tomboy" and a "flirt." Bear and I both came to the conclusion that those were 18th-century euphemisms.
The connecting room contained a painting of Gen. Greene, as well as a photo of the last Greene to live in the house.
and across the hall we saw Gen. Greene's library. Note the lack of shelves... this is because books were so precious, they were kept in trunks. Greene's servants were instructed that if the house caught fire, they had to throw the trunks of books out the window before they could run for safety.
In the kitchen we get a better sense of the Quaker decorating sensibility. Everything is very plain, and the walls are white (though that was also to increase the light in the room.)
Upstairs, the larger bedroom belonged to Caty. The guide pointed out a chair, mostly hidden behind the bed, that was the only piece original to the house.
General Greene's bedroom was adjoining. It eventually became the bedroom of one of his female successors, and is designed to reflect her tastes. We were also told that it has much more furniture than would have been present in Greene's time.
And across the hall from there, one would have thought we found the children's bedroom. Our guide explained that after the General left for the war, his brother and sister-in-law came to stay, ostensibly to help Caty with the children. The ulterior motive was to prevent any impropriety, since Caty, as we know, was a flirt. I wonder if Caty knew about that.
The final second-floor bedroom has been converted to a small gift shop. There's a third floor, however it's a garret, only accessible via a terribly narrow spiral staircase. It leads up to what would have been the servants and slaves quarters, and opens into the kitchen, two of the bedrooms and the downstairs hall. I wonder how Greene reconciled keeping slaves with his Quaker beliefs. Perhaps the same way he did with joining the Army. Hmm.
There's a good sized family cemetery in the back, a bit of a walk away from the house. Since Spell Hall was used as a hospital during the Revolution, there is a cemetery for the strangers who came there, situated beside the family one.
Both Nathanael and Caty deserve their own posts, but suffice to say that they led interesting lives. Believe it or not, it sounds like Caty's was moreso than Nathanael's.
It's definitely worth the tour, especially with a guide as knowledgeable as ours was. A real and valuable piece of Rhode Island history.
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