Hovenden Building, Warehouse, and Space Room are a group of historic buildings at the Plymouth Meeting, Whitemarsh Town, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The property is an important station on the Underground Railroad. Abolition Hall was built as a meeting place for abolitionists, and later served as studio artist Thomas Hovenden.
The house is located in the northeast corner of Germantown and Butler Pikes, diagonally opposite the Meeting House of Friends Plymouth. Northeast home is a granary stone, and attached to the northeast corner of the warehouse is a 2-storey hopper house known as the Abolition Hall. The three buildings are part of a 10.45 hectare agricultural land, and contribute property in the Plymouth Historical Historic District.
The property is threatened by a 2016 proposal to change Butler Pike's route between Hovenden House and its granary. Preservation Pennsylvania added the property to the 2017 Pennsylvania At Risk 2017 list.
Video Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall
History
The settlement at the Plymouth Meeting was founded by a group of Devonshire Quakers who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1686. The Maulsby family, who later reached fame, arrived in Pennsylvania in 1698, and came to the town of Whitemarsh in 1705.
Maulsby
Merchant Maulsby Jr. (1737-1772) was a mill, who married Hannah Davis (1743-1807) in 1766. On June 20, 1767, he bought a 100-acre farm with a front at the "Whitemarsh great road" (Germantown Pike) ) and "Plymouth line" (Butler Pike), for Ã, Â £ 651. The purchase excludes the 8.25-acre plot in the northeast corner of Germantown and Butler Pikes, described as 1767 "Elizabeth and Catherine Ellis's Land." He and his wife built a 2 storey stone house on the property. They have two children - Samuel (1768-1838) and Elizabeth (married to John Freese). In 1769, Merchant Jr. taxed Ã, Â £ 10 for 100 acres, one horse, and one ox. He died in February 1772 at the age of 34.
On the morning of May 20, 1778, 10-year-old Samuel Maulsby watched British troops march to Butler Pike to the meetinghouse, part of their failed attempt to surround the Marquis de Lafayette and 2,100 Continental troops at Barren Hill Battle. The tape of Maulsby was recorded by John Fanning Watson in his book Annals of Philadelphia (1830), including his description of the Redcoats plundering his mother's widow's home.
Hannah Davis Maulsby's widow married David Marple in 1781, and soon widowed again. He married Richard Corson in 1784, with whom he had two children, Richard and Hannah. The Corsons occupied a 2-storey stone house for a while, but settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Samuel Dean was a Maulsby property farm in 1781; Enoch Marple farmed in 1783; and seventeen-year-old Samuel Muulsby and former schoolmate Joseph Corson, nephew Richard Corson, farmed in 1785. Joseph Corson married Hannah Dickinson in 1786, and the young couple rented a 2nd floor stone house until 1789. Like Samuel Maulsby, they became abolitionist, and a few decades later one of their sons would marry one of his daughters.
On February 3, 1794, Samuel Maulsby bought an 8.25-acre plot in the northeast corner of Germantown and Butler Pikes for £ 137. The seller was John Fontiles and his wife Elizabeth, who had purchased a corner plot from Joseph and Mary Potts on February 2 1789. The deed of 1794 mentions "a messuage" (house) on the property, but does not describe it. Maulsby then purchased an adjacent plot at the northern end of the farm, which expanded to 128 hectares (51.8 hectares) and extended to Flourtown Road.
Samuel Maulsby is the owner of a large and lush farm at the Plymouth Meeting... It includes all the north eastern corners of two streets, Germantown overpass, southern boundary, and Plymouth and Broad Ax, which is extended for a half mile, its western border. [I] In addition to agricultural operations, the combustion of lime is widely carried out by it.
Around 1795, he built a 3-storey, 14-room, Federal-style building on the corner, opposite the opposite side of the conference hall. The stone house that had previously appeared to have been incorporated into his new home. Maulsby built a stone barn, probably around the same time, and allegedly had built a warehouse carriage. In 1799, he married Susanna Thomas (1780-1818), and they had seven children.
Maulsby built the Cater House of the House ( c. 1802), in the southeast corner of Butler Pike and Flourtown Road, possibly as a housing for Thomas Davis, a free black submarine listed as a living creature on his property. Maulsby also built the General Store and Post Office ( c. 1826-27) next to his home, at 3-5 Germantown Pike. His son Jonathan (1801-1845) runs the shop and serves as the first postmaster of the Plymouth Meeting.
In 1832, Maulsby's daughter Martha (1807-1870) married George Corson (1803-1860), son of Joseph and Hannah Corson (and former scribe at the general store). Samuel Maulsby died on July 12, 1838, and was buried beside his wife in the cemetery ground of the meeting hall. George and Martha Maulsby Corson bought the farm from his land on April 6, 1839. George and his brothers bought the Maulsby limestone mine, and established what became G. & amp; W. H. Corson Company - Lime Traders.
Abolitionism
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made it a federal crime to provide assistance to escaped slaves.
The earliest Abolitionists and only in the cities of Plymouth and Whitemarsh were Samuel Maulsby, Joseph Corson and [his son] Alan W. Corson. Far back before 1820 they had been stirred by the sharp exile from slavery, and the horrors of the slave trade, created by Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce and Thomas Fouell Buxton, before the British Parliament, against intense hatred of slavery and slave trade, in our own country.
Both parents George Corson and Martha Maulsby have protected the escaped slaves. But it was a close friendship of the couple with Benjamin Lundy - publisher of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society's weekly newspaper, The National Enquirer (1836-38) - who inspired them to be fully involved in the cause. They turned their property into a major station on the Underground Railroad, providing food and shelter for hundreds of escaped slaves. Daniel Ross, a free black man in Norristown, Pennsylvania, often acts as a "conductor," leads the fugitives at night to the next station - north to William Foulke's home in Penllyn, Pennsylvania; or northeast to the abolitionist who lives around the Quaker meetinghouse in Upper Dublin and Horsham, Pennsylvania. The Underground Route continues through Bucks County, New Jersey and New York, and finally freedom in Canada. At least on one occasion, Corson hides people under a straw wagon and drives them to the next station.
The greater burden of work [escape protection] was borne by George and his wife, Martha Maulsby Corson. Their home in Maulsby's old house, right in front of the Friends of Plymouth Meeting House, so prominent the place, known to everyone miles and miles around it, made it easier for the slaves to find a place, when sent by people from a distance to "George Corson at the Plymouth Meeting. " He who sent fugitives to Mahlon Linton, in Newtown, or to William H. Johnson, in Buckingham, or to Richard Moore, in Quakertown, Bucks county, from time to time, during the period of great struggle from 1830 to 1850.
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increases the penalty for providing assistance to slaves who escape up to six months in prison and a $ 1,000 fine. This allows slavecatcher to pursue cross-country fugitives to every US state and territory. Corson was involved in hiding Jane Johnson, who escaped the gap in federal law.
George Corson, who is fearless when on the right. - Abolitionist Montgomery County (1900).
Jane Johnson
On the morning of July 18, 1855, Jane Johnson (1822-1872) and her two young sons arrived in Philadelphia by train with her master, North Carolina slaveholder John H. Wheeler , and his family. They are on their way from Washington, D.C. to New York City, and had to move to a ferry to cross the Delaware River. Wheeler locked Johnson and his sons in the hotel room while he and his family took the afternoon to get around town. Pennsylvania does not recognize the ownership rights of slave owners, and Johnson asks help from hotel officials to escape from slavery. Porter contacts abolitionist William Still, and Still and Passmore Williamson lawyers rush to the docks when the 5 pm ferry will leave for Camden, New Jersey. They found Johnson and his sons with his master on the deck of the ferry, and Williamson explained to him that Pennsylvania law guarantees his freedom, if he chooses it:
You are entitled to your freedom in accordance with Pennsylvania law, which has been brought to the State by your owner. If you prefer freedom to slavery, as we suspect everybody does, you have a chance to receive it now. Act quietly - do not be afraid of your master - you are as much entitled to your freedom as we are, or as he is - determined and you need not fear but that you will be protected by law. The judge has time and again decided the case in this city and a country similar to yours for freedom! Of course, if you want to remain a slave with your employer, we can not force you to leave; we just want to make you sensitive to your rights. Remember, if you miss this opportunity, you may never get another...
For a few moments when the above statement was made, the slave owner often interrupted - saying that he understood all about the law that made him free, and his right to go if he wanted; but argues that he does not want to abandon... [B] The woman's desire for freedom is altogether too strong to enable her to make a sole confession favorable to her desire in this matter. On the contrary, he repeatedly said, clearly and firmly, "I am not free, but I want my freedom - ALWAYS want to be free !! but he holds me. "
The last bell [ferry] was tolling! The last time for further delay goes! Her arm was slightly touched, accompanied by the word, "Come on!" he immediately got up. Instantly at their start, slave holders rushed to women and children, to prevent them from leaving; and, if I am not mistaken, he simultaneously holds the woman and Mr. Williamson, whose resistance on his part led Mr. W. take it and put it aside quickly. The passengers searched around, but there was nothing to disturb on behalf of the slave owner except one person, which I took to be the owner of another slave. He said rudely, "Let them alone, they are his...!" The women and children were helped, but not forced to leave. Nor is there any violence or threat that I see or hear.
While still leading Johnson and his sons away, five black horse people prevented Wheeler from stopping them. Williamson still explained to the authorities that this was a legitimate act, not a kidnapping.
Williamson, the only white person involved, was arrested and accused of violating the Fugitive Massacre Act. Federal Judge John Kintzing Kane presided over his trial, and refused to believe that Williamson did not know where Johnson was being hidden. Kane found him in court humiliation, and imprisoned him for more than three months, which attracted national attention. Williamson's successful defense is that Johnson's teachers have taken him to Pennsylvania, a free country, therefore he is not a fugitive all over the state, and state law than federal law is applied. Still and five layoffs are accused of kidnapping, rioting, disorderly conduct, and assault. On August 29, 1855, Johnson appeared as a surprise witness in their trial, and testified that he had voluntarily walked away from Wheeler. The most serious allegations against the men were dismissed, though the two men holding Wheeler were punished for assault and spent a week in jail. Johnson was escorted out of the courthouse by Lucretia Mott, Pdt. James Miller McKim and George Corson. He was hidden at Corson's house at the Plymouth Meeting to prevent pro-slave activists from kidnapping him and returning him to slavery. At the end of his stay, 13-year-old son Ellwood drove Johnson in the nightcar to Mahlon Linton's home in Newtown, Pennsylvania. From there he was smuggled into Boston, Massachusetts and reunited with his sons.
Space Disposal
The Jane Johnson affair led to a national controversy - largely cheered in the North, cruelly condemned in the South. The Plymouth Friends Meeting has allowed abolitionist speakers to use their meetinghouse for decades, but permission was rejected after the 1856 burning of another Quaker meetinghouse that has hosted abolitionist speakers. George Corse's reaction to the rejection was to build a lecture hall above the warehouse of his carriage to provide space for abolitionist meetings.
He was determined to build a hall, where he could control it. He makes a pretty big one and equips it with a chair, warmed and illuminated at his own expense. And now we can see how comfortable it is for the lecturers to make their home a temporary home. As time passes, more and more neighbors and friends are interested in meeting to hear the eloquent and sincere men and women who portray the atrocities of slavery.
Abolition Hall can accommodate up to 200 people, and is used for Montgomery County Anti-Slavery Society meetings - where Corson had been founder in 1837 - and for lectures by leading abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison and Lucretia Mott.
Corson died in November 1860. William Still praised Corson in the history of the Underground Railway in 1872:
There may be some more devoted men than George Corson for the benefit of oppressed people everywhere. The slave, fleeing from his master, had once found a home with him, and felt there that no slave hunter would take him away until every means of protection failed. His home is always open to entertaining anti-slavery supporters, and warmly supported by a great wife, everything they can do to make their guests feel comfortable. It must be regretted that he died before the emancipation of the slaves, which he had long worked for, arrived.
Studio Artist
The daughter of the Corsons family, Helen (1846-1935), was trained as an artist at the Philadelphia Design School for Women and the Academy of Fine Arts of Pennsylvania. He then studied in Paris, and exhibited at Paris Salon, 1876, 1879 and 1880. He met Irish-born painter Thomas Hovenden (1840-1895) in France, and they were married at the Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse on June 9, 1881. They moved into the house her late parents, and raising two children, Thomas Jr. and Martha.
Hovenden succeeded Thomas Eakins as Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Pennsylvania in 1886. He specializes in the genre scene of rural life, using his neighbor, often an African American, as a model. He turned Abolition Hall into a studio, and the moral causes that have been fought there inspired some of his work. His most famous painting - The Last Moments of John Brown (1882-84), Metropolitan Museum of Art - depicts a radical abolitionist John Brown kissing a baby when he was taken to a gallows. Hovenden was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1881, and an academic in 1882.
"Thomas Hovenden lost his life at an unscheduled crossing on the Pennsylvania Railroad near his home, August 14, 1895, in an effort to save the life of a young girl who was crossing in front of an approaching engine. The accident happened about three miles from his home, near the southern edge of what is now the Way of Chemistry. Advocacy Helen Corson Hovenden pressed the Pennsylvania Railroad to increase Trenton Cutoff's high-speed footprint, separating them from grade trolley tracks. Pdt. William Henry Furness gave a speech at Thomas Hovenden's funeral, and Eakins and Samuel Murray were among the pall bearers.
Helen Corson Hovenden is famous for her portraits of children and pets. The couple's daughter, Martha Maulsby Hovenden (1884-1941), a sculptor who was trained at PAFA under Charles Grafly and at Art Students League of New York under Hermon Atkins MacNeil, then used Abolition Hall as his studio. Examples of his work can be seen at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge. In 1939, he designed a book lecturer, still used by the Memorial Library of Friends of the William Jeanes. The original copper and print plates of the book plate are stored in the Friends archive.
Nancy Corson (1920-2012), great-granddaughter of George Corson and his grandson. Ellwood M. Corson (the teenager who helped Jane Johnson in 1855), made the Maulsby stone his home from 1946 until his death in 2012..
Maps Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall
Plymouth Meeting Historic District
The village of Plymouth Meeting was designated a historic district of Pennsylvania in 1961, with a combined resolution of Plymouth and the Whitemarsh Cities. The district includes 66 historic buildings.
In 1971, the village of Plymouth Meeting became the first National Register District in Pennsylvania. At that time, the Maulsby/Corson/Hovenden guesthouse was threatened by a plan to separate Butler Pike into two one-way highways that would straddle buildings on the property. The north passer will run along the east wall of the barn, and need the demolition of the Exhaust Hall. Nancy Corson wrote NRHP nominations specifically for Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall as a unit, which was also approved in 1971. Plans for bypass were abandoned.
The history marker
Nancy Corson and Charles Blockson, an expert in Underground Railroad history, co-wrote nominations for Pennsylvania state history markers to mark the Abolition Hall. The marker was approved, and dedicated to the Butler Pike 4006 (in front of the warehouse) on November 18, 2000:
Recent history
Offering by Whitemarsh Township to buy property for open space was rejected by its owners in 2014.
Proposed development
At the end of 2015, K. Hovnanian Builders submitted a sketch plan to a municipal planning/zoning office proposing the construction of 48 townhouses in eight hectares of open space behind the building. The plan included Butler Pike's rerouting between Hovenden Building and Barn/Abolition Hall. This re-route will require the disassembly or relocation of the Plymouth General Meeting Store and Post Office (also listed in the National Register).
After the vocal opposition, the Whitemarsh City Supervisory Board unanimously decided to refuse the request for a zoning variant. In response, the developer requested the continuation of the scheduled zoning hearing on April 25, 2016. In late August 2016, K. Hovnanian Builders submitted the revised Zoning Plan to the City of Whitemarsh, insisting that this plan qualifies for shared parking and access (with property adjacent). In early November 2016, the Zoning Officer issued his Preliminary Opinion, agreeing with the developer's statement that the current Zoning Plan meets the code requirements. With the publication of these two opinions, the 30-day period begins when any "disadvantaged" party may appeal. In the absence of the appeal, the opinion of the Zoning Officer becomes binding. (See Section 916.2 - Initial Opinion of Zoning Officers). On December 21, 2016, seven concerned citizens of the City of Whitemarsh, represented by lawyers, appealed, challenged the Zonation Officials' Initial Opinion. On January 31, the appeal was heard before the Whitemarsh City Zoning Supervisory Board, but after three hours of testimony and inquiries, the trial resumed on March 16, 2017. On 15 February, the lawyers for the applicants filed for legal endorsement, further supporting the challenge to the Initial Opinion.
Advocacy
In the Spring of 2016, the Conservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia placed Abolition Hall/Barn and Hovenden House on the "Places to Save" list, a public register that "focused attention and energy on special places at risk of loss."
In the May 2016 television news, the current owners of the Plymouth Meeting Country Store and Post Office took the news crew into the basement of the building and showed them the tunnel he said were used as part of the Underground Railroad. The tunnel leads to the Hall of Abolition, just behind the building.
In September 2016, the Pennsylvania History Commission and Museum issued a letter to Plymouth and Whitemarsh Towns clarifying and reaffirming the importance of the Maulsby/Corson/Hovenden homestead. Taking note of "interrelated building complexes," the letter goes on to state that their 1971 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places "reinforces the important role these buildings play in the context of the village, as well as their individual history, and architectural significance."
In February 2017, Preservation Pennsylvania (PPA) added properties to the Pennsylvania Risk List by 2017 . The organization also agreed to become a fiscal agent for Friends of Abolition Hall, which raised funds to support zoning challenges and protect the inheritance of the homestead. Online donation received at Friends of Dana Hall Removal .
The grassroots battle to save the inheritance of the Corson homestead continues as Friends of Abolition Hall challenges the developer application for conditional conditional approval. This app is being considered by the Whitemarsh City Supervisory Board, with the Public Hearing open on March 22, 2018. The hearing continues until April 26, 2018, and is likely to continue into the third night. Friends Groups have been given a stand in this case, as it has a small number of nearby neighbors. The challenge is based on the statement that the plan failed to meet the requirements of the Zoning Code, which is a prerequisite for conditional conditional approval.
On April 26, 2018, Philadelphia Inquirer publishes the Op Ed column, drawing attention to the fate of this valuable Underground Railroad site.
See also
- Alan West Corson Homestead
- List of Historic Historic Places of Interest in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Note
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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