Ophelia Troup married George C. Dent in 1847 at the old Broadfield House. Until 1856, the couple lived at Dent’s mother’s plantation, Cedar Hill, outside Darien, where he managed the properties. They then moved to Broadfield and renamed the estate Hofwyl after Dent’s former school in Switzerland. The construction history of Hofwyl House is uncertain. It was traditionally believed to have been built in 1851 as an overseer’s house and occupied by the Dents when Broadfield House burned about 1858, but records show no employment of an overseer after 1850 and do not document the burning of Broadfield House. Charles Wylly, a contemporary of George and Ophelia Dent, said the couple built the house for themselves. The kitchen complex stood apart from the main house because cooking over an open hearth created fire risk and added heat and humidity in southern summers. Its first room served as quarters for the cook, the middle room was the main kitchen with a large brick fireplace, and the room nearest the main house was the Summer Kitchen, used in the hottest weather when fewer people were staying in the house. A second-floor exit, deck, and stairwell were probably removed during renovations in the 1930s, and a small screened shed at the back of the kitchen was added later for use as a dog house. George Columbus Dent, 1822–1884, was the first master of Hofwyl Plantation.