An evening of simple pleasures — garden strolling, porch sitting, cider sipping and a bit of lawn bowling, all enjoyed with background music from the player piano – will be the order of the day at a Summer Soiree Friday, July 11 at The Raven’s Nest, the home of Tom and Connie Jeffers in Margaretville.
The event, which runs from 5 to 8 p.m., is a fundraiser for the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown (HSM). It will include light fare from Mary’s Cookin’ Again, tastings of the Jeffers’ home-made hard cider, and other libations.
Mamie Townsend and calf on the family’s Bragg Hollow, Halcottsville farm.
Guests will enjoy tours of all three floors of this elegant 1890s home. A restored player piano with its visible workings is sure to fascinate. Choose from among the Jeffers’ collection of several hundred rolls of old time and modern tunes.
Visit the carriage house, with its specially equipped woodworking shop and Cider Room, and the gardens, in full bloom now at the height of summer. Play a game of croquet using a vintage croquet set, and check out the steampunk installation in the parlor. Don’t know what steampunk is? Come find out!
Admission is $40 per person, $75 for couples. Call 845-586-4878 by July 5 to make reservations for this unique and casually elegant evening. Period dress is welcomed!
At a HSM-sponsored program in the spring of 2013, the Jeffers shared the story of their beautifully restored Queen Anne Victorian home at 191 Walnut Street with a rapt audience of history lovers.
At the end of September in 1892, architect, contractor and builder Henry Coulter and his wife Nina purchased a lot on the northwest end of Walnut Street from Jeremiah Ackerly. They built a house in which to raise their family and it was completed in the mid-1890s.
Since Mr. Coulter was a builder and the home was intended for his family to live in, the construction is amazingly sound “and somewhat over-built,” the Jeffers say. The house features a typical wraparound front porch with turret.
Later owners (there have been seven) added a massive modern kitchen and a master suite in what was a third floor attic, including raising the turret and “witches cap” by 14 feet.