Museum Spotlight: Susan B. Anthony House

It's been a long way from poverty to prosperity, but that's the trip the Susan B. Anthony House has taken over the past century to reach international recognition.

Located in the heart of Western New York's wine country, the journey of the red brick Victorian on 17 Madison Street, hearkens back to its 1860 roots. Built in a quiet middle-class neighborhood, the house--a National Historic Landmark since 1966--is strategically located between historic Erie Canal and New York's Interstate 90.

From 1866 until 1906, this historic landmark was home to the American civil rights leader, Susan B. Anthony, during the most politically active period of her life. Easily accessible to visitors, famous reformers such as Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton often traveled here to visit the outspoken Quaker family. Consequently, the home later became headquarters for the National American Woman's Suffrage Association.

The home itself is also distinguished by this period. For example, visitors entering the front door crossed a porch decorated in ornamental wood and a shingled front gable with an oriel window. Once inside the front parlor, where Anthony often held suffragist meetings, is the location of her famed arrest for voting illegally in 1872.

Visitors, who climbed the narrow staircase, headed to the third-story attic "workroom." In 1881, Stanton and Anthony chose this workspace to co-author the History of Woman's Suffrage Vol. I followed by Vols. II-IV. In 1897, Anthony raised the attic's roof to pen her memoirs, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, A Story of the Evolution of the Status of Women with biographer Ida Husted Harper.

In the home's second story bedroom, Susan B. Anthony died in her bed in 1906. Less than a month earlier, Anthony delivered her famous "Failure is impossible" speech at her 86^th Birthday celebration in Washington D.C. At her wish, Anthony is buried in nearby Mt. Hope Cemetery along with lifelong friend, Frederick Douglass.

In the intervening four decades, the house was passed through private ownership. In 1945, the Victorian was purchased by a group of women--historians and volunteers--with the intention of creating a museum. The ladies gathered papers, artifacts and materials related to Anthony and the suffragist movement. They furnished the home authentically, frequently giving tours and responding to requests from students and scholars. Sadly, they raised only enough money to keep the doors open.

As time passed, the house fell to severe disrepair: wood rotted, paint peeled, ceilings were moist with water damage. By 1990, the collection the women had fought to preserve was tucked away in drawers and closets.

Frustrated by the disintegration and lack of funding for the home, the remaining women of the original regime passed the high seat to Executive Director, Lorie Lachiusa Barnum in 1992. The board agreed to get aggressive: create a strategic planning project and restore the home to meet the needs of its growing public interest.

Today, a Capital Campaign is in place aimed to restore the house to its original state, "everything from garden to putty hole," according to Trustees.

"I am anxious to get the house restored in the perfect way it should be," says Barnum, Executive Director, "to keep the spirit of Susan B. Anthony in it and secure it for the future." Barnum also notes that the preserved collection has been completely inventoried and is currently on display to the public.

The collection contains what Barnum calls, "treasures." Among them: the bedroom furniture of Anthony and sister Mary, including the "feather-star" pattern quilt on the bed; authentic photographs and prints that hung on walls; a black silk dress worn by Anthony; her typewriter; glasses; and the famed, trademark alligator bag that she carried on her travels.

Your tour will now begin in the new Susan B. Anthony House Education and Visitor Center, open in July of 1998 in the renovated next-door home of Anthony's sister, Hannah Anthony Mosher. It is handicapped-accessible and features frequent exhibitions, interactive displays, a gift shop and a voting booth.

Once outside, you will see the Susan B. Anthony Preservation District--a nine block area around the Susan B. Anthony House--restored carefully to the period as she left it. Barnum also notes that the visitation to the home swelled from single digits to over 15,000 persons last year.

Although Anthony did not live to see the 19^th Amendment allowing women to vote, the dream was culminated on 17 Madison Street, Rochester. Now a part of the international "I Love NY" advertising campaign, the visitors of this living history can see what was known to Miss Susan B. Anthony as, "Home...the best place after all."

VISITOR INFORMATION: The house is open for one-hour tours with hours varying seasonally. The House is located on 17 Madison Street, Rochester, NY approximately 20 miles from New York State's Interstate 90. There is a modest admission fee and your AAA card will be honored. There is no charge on voting day with the adornment of your "I Voted Today" sticker. For more information call (585) 235-6124 or visit the home's website at www.susanbanthonyhouse.org