Historic Structure Report: Hunt House

Yocum, Barbara; Rose, Vivien

The red-brick Hunt House at 401 East Main Street in Waterloo, New York, was the home of Richard P. Hunt from its construction in 1828 to 1856, and his widow Jane C. Hunt and children from 1856 to 1889. The house remained in the Hunt family until 1919 and was in private ownership until 1999. It became part of Women’s Rights National Historical Park in 2001. The house is listed as a contributing resource in a thematic nomination to the National Register of Historic Places entitled “Women’s Rights Historic Sites.” The Hunt House is significant as the site where the idea was conceived to hold a convention on the rights of women. Invitees to the home of Richard and Jane Hunt were Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary Ann M’Clintock, and Mary C. Wright. The convention took place July 19 and 20, 1848, at the First Wesleyan Church (the Wesleyan Chapel) in Seneca Falls, New York. Richard and Jane Hunt both attended and were also signers of the convention’s Declaration of Sentiments. One of the goals of this historic structure report was to determine the historic integrity of the Hunt House for the period 1847 to 1849. This evaluation was achieved in part thanks to a collection of Hunt family papers that was recently acquired by Women’s Rights National Historical Park, and probate inventories dated 1856 and 1890. Archival research, along with physical investigation of the house, revealed the following: • Richard P. Hunt constructed the house in 1828, according to a receipt for contracted labor. • The house was expanded in 1841, according to invoices for extensive work that included enlargement of an existing north wing, building of a new west wing, and raising of the roof to accommodate the existing Greek-Revival style cornice. • The Hunt’s “homestead farm” in 1847–49 encompassed the house and numerous outbuildings on 145.5 acres of land. Of these, only the main portion of the main house remains today on 2.74 acres. • The north and west wings were removed around 1920. • Many of the original windows with nine-over-six sashes survive today, although the old doors in the front and back doorways are gone. • Inside, the general layout of the rooms is unchanged, except for the parlor that was enlarged to its present size around 1860, and the northwest corner rooms that were modernized as a kitchen and bathrooms in the 20th century. • The rooms retain much of their original woodwork trim, but no early fireplace mantels. • Only three interior six-panel doors remain in their original doorways, all located in the upper hall. • The original random-width floorboards and plaster walls and ceilings are preserved beneath later accretions of flooring and plasterboard.

Historic Structure Report: Hunt House

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