The Benjamin Rodman House
Wealth with a Conscience
Early whaling merchants lived in elegant houses along this street. But by the time Benjamin Rodman built this Federal style home in 1821, many of his wealthy friends were moving uphill away from this shoreside neighborhood.
Though born into a prosperous whaling family, Rodman committed himself to the city's working poor. He and his wife Susan were founding members of the New Bedford Benevolent Society, created "to devise some means for the relief of the physical and moral wants of the poor of this town." In the 1830s he began championing the abolition of slavery. While whaling wealth is apparent in the city's historic houses, the owners' lives reflected some of the powerful social issues of the time.
Marker is on North Second Street, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
