This brick tavern was built by Abdiel Kent between 1833 and 1837. It served as his home, and from 1837 to 1846 was a stagecoach stop on the road from Montpelier to Canada. The Kent family settled in Calais in 1798 and this section of town is known as Kents Corners. One of Abdiel’s six brothers, Ira Kent, lived in the white clapboard house across the street. Together from 1837 until 1860 they operated I&A Kent Store in the two story wooden addition on the tavern.

The Kent family owned the property until 1916 and at various times and places in town made and sold shoes and boots, ran a brickyard and sawmill, and farmed. The barn is the only survivor of the several outbuildings that stood on this property. Louise Andrews Kent, the best selling author of the ‘Mrs. Appleyard’ series of books, convinced her cousin, A. Atwater Kent, the radio inventor and magnate, to purchase his great uncle’s home and restore it as a museum in 1930.