John Muir House 1871

Captain John Muir, a ship-builder, engineer, and riverboat pilot lived in this house until his death in 1916.  It was then occupied by Muir's daughters until the early 1950s, then by his granddaughter until 1966. The house was converted into a duplex in 1912.  In 1972, Melvin Tardy purchased the house where he lived until his death in 2001. Tardy, who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, was a local civil rights activist.  He founded the Kent Community Action Program in the late 1960s and served as its director until 1984.