Sloane-Stanley Museum
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The Eric Sloane Museum (formerly known as the Sloane-Stanley Museum) in
Kent, Connecticut Kent is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located alongside the border with New York, the town's population was 3,019 according to the 2020 census. Kent is home to three boarding schools: Kent School, the Marvelwood School ...
, is a museum featuring the studio and antique hand tool collections of
Eric Sloane Eric Sloane (born Everard Jean Hinrichs) (27 February 1905 – 5 March 1985) was an American landscape painter, illustrator, and author of illustrated books on the cultural history and folklore of America. Life and career Eric Sloane was born ...
. It is owned and operated by the State Historic Preservation Office of Connecticut. The property includes the Kent Iron Furnace, a granite
blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
which produced
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silic ...
for almost 70 years, beginning in 1826. The furnace is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.


Museum

The Eric Sloane Museum is located north of Kent village, on the west side of
United States Route 7 U.S. Route 7 (US 7) is a north–south United States highway in western New England that runs for through the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The highway's southern terminus is at Interstate 95 (I-95) exit 1 ...
. Its grounds are separated from the road by the tracks of the
Housatonic Railroad The Housatonic Railroad ( ) is a Class III railroad operating in southwestern New England and eastern New York. It was chartered in 1983 to operate a short section of ex-New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in northwestern Connecticut, and ...
; a crossing facilitates access to its grounds, and those of the adjacent Connecticut Antique Machinery Association. The museum houses a collection of antique hand tools collected over many years by Eric Sloane. The museum building, which served as Sloane's art studio, was given to the state in 1969 by the
Stanley Works Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., formerly known as The Stanley Works, is a Fortune 500 American manufacturer of industrial tools and household hardware and provider of security products. Headquartered in the greater Hartford city of New Britain, ...
tool manufacturer. It also has displays related to the industrial uses of the site in the 19th century.


Iron furnace

The iron furnace is located down the hill from the museum, on a rise overlooking the
Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
to the west. It is a stone structure in height, with sides that are at the base, sloping inward as the structure rise. Three of its faces have pointed-arch openings, two smaller ones on opposite sides. The structure is built out of rough cut granite blocks randomly laid without mortar, with iron plates and tie rods added to prevent expansion-related problems. and The history of iron processing at this site began in 1826, with the construction of a
cold blast Cold blast, in ironmaking, refers to a metallurgical furnace where air is not preheated before being blown into the furnace. This represents the earliest stage in the development of ironmaking. Until the 1820s, the use of cold air was thought to b ...
furnace. Iron ore was brought to the site from a quarry in South Kent, and the processed iron was mainly used in the construction of railroads. That furnace was rebuilt as a hot blast furnace in 1846, and was enlarged to its present size in 1870. The facility was operated until 1892. During its operational period, it would have been surrounded by wooden structures designed to facilitate operations and shelter the main structure. These were typically temporary in nature, due to the risk of fire and the frequent need for reconfiguration.


See also

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List of sites administered by the Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office This is a list of historic sites in Connecticut that are administered by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development's Historic Preservation Office. The division fulfills a range of responsibilities in the field of historic p ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield Cou ...


References


External links


Eric Sloane Museum & Kent Iron Furnace
- official site
Eric Sloane Museum & Kent Iron Furnace
- Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development site {{authority control Museums in Litchfield County, Connecticut Artists' studios in the United States Art museums and galleries in Connecticut Kent, Connecticut Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield County, Connecticut Buildings and structures completed in 1826 Buildings and structures in Litchfield County, Connecticut