Susan B. Anthony moves in
In the 1860's residents of the west side neighborhood performed a wide variety of occupations. Attorneys, laborers, businessmen, politicians and others dwelt in the area. In 1866 the most famous resident of the neighborhood, Susan B. Anthony, moved with her sister Mary and their mother to Madison Street. She would live there until her death in 1906. Mary died a year later.
Susan B. Anthony, a portrait taken by J.H. Kent in the 1870's
Susan B. Anthony was, along with her friend Frederick Douglass, one of the two most famous Rochesterians of the 19th century. She began her reformer's life by working for the abolitionist movement, but soon also became involved in the struggle for women's rights. When she moved to Madison Street, her home became a major site for organizing and writing about the movement. It was at this house that she was arrested in 1872 for daring to vote. She settled easily into the middle-class neighborhood. Although she also traveled widely during this period, this remained her home and base of operations until her death in 1906.
The House
Miss Anthony, her mother and her sister Mary moved into a red brick house that had been built before the Civil War. The Susan B. Anthony Historic Preservation District web site (www.susanbanthonyhouse.org) offers the following description:
"The two-and-a-half story brick house features cross gables with scalloped shingles and a front projecting gable oriel window. The porch is Italianate with chamfered posts, decorative brackets, and round headed panels in the front door. The long windows with stone sills and lintels have the original louvered shutters…" |
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Left, entrance, Susan B. Anthony House, 1986; right, Susan B. Anthony House, exterior view, 1910-1955 |
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Left, Susan B. Anthony, on the porch of her home, 1900-1906 (?); right, Susan B. Anthony, at her desk at home on Madison Street, 1895
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