"I fell in love with a dead woman, what can I say?" commented Sally Roesch Wagner, Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation on why she is so passionate about Mrs. Gage. "This woman so intrigued me and what I realize now is that I'm not the only person this has happened to."
The Matilda Joslyn Gage House can be found in Fayetteville on the corner of Genesee Street and Walnut Street just past the town center. Gage was a nationally known abolition and women's rights advocate who lived in the Greek revival style home from 1854 until her death in 1898.
The home is now currently under construction to become a museum. Restoration began in September and is expected to be completed before the end of 2009. Once completed, the museum will include rooms dedicated to women's rights, the Underground Railroad, religious freedom, the Gage Family, local history, and the Haudenosaunee Native American Tri
be.
"This was a woman who was the head of the women who were ahead of the times," said Wagner who quoted Gloria Steinem, a current day feminist writer and activist. Gage worked along side Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton brainstorming women's rights initiatives in this house. During the years before the Civil War, the house functioned as a dry goods store to those walking by, but secretly served as an Underground Railroad station.
The foundation's goal is to bring Gage's ideas and the relevance of them today to the community. "We really stand to become the center of heritage tourism in this region," says Wagner.
No comments:
Post a Comment