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 The
parlor is the only room remaining from “The Hermitage,”
Arthur St. Clair´s Ligonier Valley estate. The property
was situated about two miles north of town and was described on
the 1798 Direct Tax List as “1 story dwelling house 90' by
18, wood, 14 windows, 16' square kitchen, 1 shingled roof barn,
1 grist mill with 2 pair stones, 1 saw mill”. An iron furnace
was added in the early 1800´s. The parlor is of log construction;
the logs were apparently always covered by siding.
All furnishings in the parlor are from the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. The tall case clock was made by Simon Willard
in Roxbury, Massachusetts, c.1790. The carpet is an eighteenth
century Isphahan. The wing chair is English from about 1725 and
the other chairs and saddle-seat stool are English from the mid
eighteenth century. Items which belonged to the St. Clair family
include the pastel portrait of St. Clair over the mantel, the
mahogany tray with silver medallion, and the silhouettes of Arthur
and Phoebe St. Clair. The original oil painting of St. Clair in
blue and buff military uniform, by French artist Jean Pierre Henri
Elouis, c. 1795, was the gift of a local donor.
St. Clair, formerly Major-General in the Continental Army, President
of the Confederation Congress, and Governor of the Northwest Territory,
had planned “The Hermitage” complex to provide financial
support for himself and his family in retirement, but mounting
debts forced the sale of the property in 1809.
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