Photo by Dana Neuts
The Master Gardeners will host an open house on Sat., August 21 (10 am – 2 pm) at The Neely-Soames Historical Homestead, the oldest documented home in Kent. The home was built in 1885 along the Green River Trail near Russell Road.
The group will be on hand to give tours of the home, the heritage gardens and the grounds. In addition, the event will include a penny fair.
For more information about the Neely-Soames home, owned by the City of Kent, visit the City’s website. For information about the event, contact Ed LaCrosse of the Master Gardeners at 206-878-1573.
In addition, I wrote this article which was originally published in Kent Magazine in 2009:
Neely-Soames Historical Home and Garden: 5311 S. 237th Place
“Believed to be the oldest home in Kent, the Neely-Soames home was built on 320 acres of land claimed by the David A. Neely family on what is now the Green River Valley. The Neelys originally lived in a riverside cabin which contained a general store and the first post office where Neely served as Kent’s first postmaster. His fifth child, David F. Neely, built the much larger home in 1885. Representative of a typical Kent farmstead of that period, the original home was a modest, two-story rectangular-shaped home with a wooden veranda. Additions in 1900 and 1954 expanded the home to approximately 2,000 square feet.
On the State Historic Register since 1977, the home was last owned by David F. Neely’s daughter Ruby Neely Soames, who donated the home to the City of Kent upon her death in 1986. The city has renovated much of the home, keeping as much of the original architecture intact as possible. The home now serves as a meeting place, exhibit space, and trail head and parking for the Green River Trail.
In addition, several garden clubs and Boy Scout troops have adopted the home to preserve and maintain the property. The Des Moines Garden Club and the South King County Master Gardeners, for example, have grown heritage gardens to show what herbs and other plants were grown on the site in the 1800s. The produce from the gardens is donated to local food banks each season.
In a city report on the project, it says, ‘The fertile Kent valley brought life, hope and sustenance to original settlers, beckoning people of diverse heritage. The Neely-Soames Project attempts to preserve our agricultural heritage and celebrates the beginning in Kent.’”
Thanks, Dana! I know the Master Gardeners love to have visitors and to talk about the fabulous work they do, including getting most of their heritage seeds from “SeedSavers.”
What a nice surprise! Ruby Neely Soames was my great aunt and her husband Harry was my grandmother’s brother. We used to go to the farm most weekends and visit with my mother and grandmother and pick fruits and vegetables. Uncle Harry had a very large bull in the pasture that we used to throw crabapples at. He also had a large barn across the street directly in front of the house. He had many milking cows one of which was a cow named Carnation Sadie Madcap who was featured in the article “Believe It or Not” in the Seattle Times. She had quadruplets and all of them including Sadie went to the Carnation Farms so people could see them. Ruby and Harry had no children but were always generous to all of us great grandkids. Do you know what happened to all of Ruby’s furniture? Hopefully, they went to an historical museum as she had some very nice pieces. Aunt Ruby always let us pick a bouquet of her flowers to take home before we left and sample her apple pie with warm cows milk. Good Memories!
Roberta, thanks for your note. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I don’t know about the majority of the furniture, but I do know there are a few pieces in the bedroom that are original…I’d have to look at the photos I took when I did the story for Kent Magazine last year, but I believe there was a hand carved bed done in oak. It was beautiful!