Susan B. Anthony House

Susan B. Anthony House
by Katrina


This is the Susan B. Anthony House located on 17 Madison Street. This house was Susan's and Mary's.

In 1863 house numbers 9 and 7 Madison Street, which is now 17 Madison Street (it just got re-numbered), used to be Susan B Anthony’s house. In this house lived Susan, Mary and Lucy Anthony. The house was built just before the Civil War. This house is one of the many houses the Anthony’s owned. The Susan B. Anthony House is red with very few windows. It is fairly big and does not look old. Inside historians scrapped down many layers of paint until they got to the original wallpaper. They remade wallpaper to match the original wallpaper pattern. Today, tourists can stand where Susan once stood and take pictures there.

The Anthony’s moved to Rochester because in Hardscrabble, New York (now Center Falls) depression came, forcing them to go bankrupt from their cotton business. They moved to Gates, New York (which is now near the Rochester airport). Daniel died in 1862, just at the beginning of the Civil War. Susan’s mom, Lucy, did not feel the need for a big house. Also, because that house reminded her of Daniel too much, they moved to the house on Madison Street.

Susan’s parents were the ones that introduced Frederick Douglass to Susan. Susan and Frederick became good friends after time. Frederick Douglass would come over every Sunday to have dinner and they would talk about fighting oppression. But when Frederick began to travel it became harder for him to come.

On some days Ida Husted Harper would come over and she and Susan would go up in the attic and write Susan’s three volume biographies. Ida also went to the women rights meetings. Susan had some friends that also went to the meetings. Friends Isaac and Amy Post also helped on the Underground Railroad. Amy often came to the house to talk to Susan about worries she had about women’s rights and slavery.

At this house, women were the ones being oppressed. Women could not vote, but in 1872 Susan voted and got arrested in her parlor. Also, women could not own anything or could not hold any money. That was one of the reasons why Susan did not get married.

This house helped fight oppression because of all the events that happened in it. This house is very powerful. Today, it has been restored so that it looks almost like it did when these important meetings were happening.

In 1906 Susan died in the house. She fought much oppression in her home. That work paid off when the 19th amendment of the Constitution was enacted and women could vote.

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