Hearthside - The House That Love Built

Talbot Family Traces Its Roots to Hearthside

Yet another very important piece of Hearthside history was discovered recently! It was an ordinary Open House at Hearthside on July 9th when, just 10 minutes before the doors were to close, a couple stepped up onto the front porch and excitedly announced that they were “the Talbot’s.” The Talbot’s turned out to be Bill and Frith Talbot of Cincinnati, Ohio.   Bill’s grandparents were Arnold and Katherine Talbot, owners of the “Hearthside Looms” a thriving business during the early 1900’s. Bill and Frith quite literally stumbled upon Hearthside while visiting Rhode Island on vacation. While the genesis of their trip was to give their children and grandchildren some idea of the family’s background and history in New England, they really didn’t expect to be able to actually visit Hearthside, the house Bill had only seen photos of and heard stories about when he was growing up. Their trip to Lincoln was purely serendipitous. They set out that morning from their hotel in Mystic to take a leisurely ride to Providence and suddenly they were headed north, and found themselves in Saylesville. They were then directed to Hearthside and were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not a private home, but a museum…..and that they just happened to be there during the only 3 hours the house is open each month. Needless to say, they were totally overcome with emotion.

After a two-hour private tour and visit, Bill and Frith made plans to return the next day with children and grandchildren in tow so that they could get a sense of their great-great-grandparent’s activities there. At the turn of the century, the Talbot’s set up antique looms and spinning wheels in the attic at Hearthside. There, on 8 looms, some of the finest fabrics in the country were woven. House Beautiful magazine credits the “Hearthside Looms” for a rebirth of the American arts and crafts movement. Dress linen, rugs, table covers, pillow tops and chair seats were produced there. In 1927, the Talbot’s moved their looms to Philadelphia where they carried on the business until the 1960’s. The looms are now located at the Merrimack Textile Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts. The loom at display at Hearthside in the “Talbot Room” is similar to the antique looms used by the Talbot’s. “Having seen those looms in the Talbot Studio in Philadelphia, it’s hard to think of them in the third floor attic at Hearthside,” stated Bill Talbot. “One can only imagine what must have gone on in those rooms on those looms with my grandparents and the other weavers.”

Bill and Frith returned to Hearthside with their family the following day and continued to make their connections with their past, while providing Friends of Hearthside with more pieces of the Talbot history. Following their visit to Hearthside, the family paid a visit to Swan Point Cemetery where Arnold and Katharine are buried and some other ancestors they were able to trace. As an aside, Arnold’s grandfather, William Richmond Talbot married Mary Cornelia Arnold, and they lived at 209 Williams Street in Providence. It was Mary Arnold Talbot who “saved” the Gaspee Room of the Sabin Tavern and had it attached to her Williams Street house in 1891.

Upon leaving, Bill Talbot, who had packed up the Talbot estate in Philadelphia years ago, promised to sort through cartons of materials in search of more information about the Hearthside episode in the Talbot family’s life. He has kept his word, as he has already made a significant donation to Hearthside by sending a wooden hand loom, which had been used as the logo for the “Hearthside Looms,” along with a 1927 magazine article from Ladies Home Journal about the Talbot weavers, and a blotter which announced the exhibition of woven goods at Hearthside.

“The visit to Hearthside was an incredible experience,” stated Bill Talbot, “and we pay tribute to the Mowbrays and more recently to Friends of Hearthside for what has been done, and is being done, for Hearthside.”

Talbot Family at Hearthside

William Talbot, far right, and his wife Elizabeth (Frith), stand with their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren on the steps of Hearthside.

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