Women's Rights National Historic Park - Hunt House
Welcome to one of the few national parks dedicated to a social movement - women's rights.
Here in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, in living rooms and on front porches, in private and in public, a group of five women started a movement that would transform American society.
In 1848, those five women summoned reformers from across the northeast to the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. For two days, as many as 300 women and men considered the role of women in a democratic society. They emerged with the Declaration of Sentiments - a document that shaped a reform movement for decades to come. Indeed, it continues today.
Women's Rights National Historic Park includes the Wesleyan Chapel and the homes of some of the movement's organizers - places where radical thought turned into enduring improvement for millions across the world.
The Hunt House: The Movement Ignited
On July 9, 1848, here in the Hunt House, a social affair focused on "protest and discussion" ignited the women's rights movement in the United States.
Just two weeks after bearing her first child, Jane Hunt invited Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M'Clintock (all fellow Quakers) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton into her home. These women, interconnected by family, friendship, anti-slavery activities, religion, had even shared experiences facing down rioting mobs. Here, they conceived and planned the 1848 First Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls.
Jane Hunt's involvement in the Women's Rights movement was no rebellion against a stark existence. Her husband, one of the wealthiest men in Seneca County owned a home of eleven rooms on a large farm. In the carriage house were three carriages and a sleigh. The movement Jane Hunt helped found embraces women from all classes.
Marker is on East Main Street (U.S. 20) just west of Thurber Drive, on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
