Mother Superior House

The Mother Superior House, formerly known as the Kilbinger House (1820), combines a Harmonist log structure with a Harmonist brick building. It was used as a community kitchen (an annex to Community House No. 2) during the Harmonist era and a tavern during the Owen/Maclure period. Jane Blaffer Owen restored the building and added a guesthouse in the 1960s. The three structures were united into one and renamed “Mother Superior House.”

Upstairs are two rooms, the first a library and the second, an archive dedicated to two of JBO’s mentors, Helen Duprey Bullock, who was her first advisor on historic preservation, and Paul Tillich who was her spiritual teacher at Union Theological Seminary. He spent a brief period at the Mother Superior in the early 1960s as Jane’s guest. Paul Tillich Park is dedicated to his memory, and his ashes are buried there.

The guest house, named after Mother Ruth, an Anglican nun and one of JBO’s spiritual mentors, is used for artists, writers, and scholars in residence.