Wesleyan Chapel Historic Structure Report: Historical Data Section

Brown, Sharon

Women's Rights National Historical Park was authorized for inclusion in the National Park System on December 28, 1980. The park is located in Seneca Falls and Waterloo, New York. Five sites associated with the nineteenth century women's rights movement and the 1848 Women's Rights Convention were mentioned in the legislation--the Wesleyan Chapel and the Stanton, McClintock, Hunt and Bloomer houses in Seneca Falls and Waterloo. The historical park was dedicated in July 1982 and is currently open for limited public use. Data from this report will be used to plan the interpretation and preservation of the Wesleyan Chapel remnants. Emphasis in research and writing was placed on specific construction data and occupancy history relating to the chapel. Most of the historical research was conducted at the Seneca Falls Historical Society and various other area archives and repositories. Research trips to Seneca Falls, Waterloo and Ithaca, New York, in autumn and winter 1985-1986 uncovered construction and occupant use data. A side trip to Washington, D.C., in August 1985 allowed research at the Library of Congress. Another aspect of the research involved locating photographs or drawings of the Wesleyan Chapel during the years of Methodist Wesleyan ownership. Much of this work involved contacting many local and regional repositories. Local historians and librarians made long searches for any type of photographic rendering of the chapel. Inquiries were sent to photographic collection agencies, as well as to repositories possessing papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's children, and professional history journals. Much of the search for a Wesleyan Chapel photograph was conducted by the Stanton Foundation in Seneca Falls, then under the leadership of Dr. Corinne Guntzel.

Wesleyan Chapel Historic Structure Report: Historical Data Section

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