Kimberly Mansion | |
Location | 1625 Main Street, Glastonbury, Connecticut |
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Coordinates | 41°41′21.86″N72°36′26.04″W / 41.6894056°N 72.6072333°W |
Area | 3 acres (1.2 ha) |
Built | circa 1720 |
NRHP reference No. | 74002178 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | September 17, 1974 [1] |
Designated NHL | May 30, 1974 [2] |
The Kimberly Mansion is a historic house at 1625 Main Street in Glastonbury, Connecticut. It was the home of Abby and Julia Evelina Smith, political activists involved in causes including abolitionism and women's suffrage. By contesting the assessment on their property and protesting against "taxation without representation," they brought international attention to the cause of women's rights. [2]
The Smith family hosted abolitionist meetings and lectures in their home and on their lawn. They collected signatures for an anti-slavery petition and sent it to former president John Quincy Adams to present to Congress. [3]
In 1873, late in their lives, they became tax resisters when they began a two-year fight with local authorities over an inequitable property tax assessment on their property, Kimberly Farm. [2] They owned the most valuable property in town and believed they were being exploited by the town tax collector. In Connecticut at the time, women had no vote and therefore no voice in the disposition of their taxes. They refused to pay their tax until they were given representation. Abby took their concerns to the town council where she said:
The motto of our government is 'Proclaim liberty to all inhabitants of the land!' and here, where liberty is so highly extolled and glorified by every man in it, one-half of the inhabitants are not put under her laws, but are ruled over by the other half, who can take all they possess. How is Liberty pleased with such worship?
The town responded by seizing their Alderney cows, auctioning them off and attempting to auction their farm as well. The sisters were able to buy the cows back and fought the town in court, ultimately winning. The case brought wide national attention to the sisters, their cows and the cause of women's suffrage. [2]
The sisters came from an accomplished and nonconformist family. The sisters' parents were Zephaniah Smith, a lawyer and former Sandemanian minister, and Hannah Hickok, an amateur mathematician and poet. There were three other sisters: Hancy, an inventor; Laurilla, an artist and Cyrinthia, a poet. [3] Julia also knew classical languages and in 1855, she finished the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman. [4] She published the translation herself in 1876 as an example of the accomplishments that women are capable of. [5]
The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974 for its association with the Smith sisters and its role in their protest. [2] [3] The large wooden two-story farmhouse was built in the early 18th century by the Connecticut politician Eleazer Kimberly. [3] Zephaniah Smith bought the house in 1790.
The Julia Evelina Smith Parker Translation is considered the first complete translation of the Bible into English by a woman. As of 2017, she is still the only woman to have translated the entire Bible unaided. The Bible was titled The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments; Translated Literally from the Original Tongues, and was published in 1876.
The Elms is a large mansion located at 367 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island, completed in 1901. The architect Horace Trumbauer (1868–1938) designed it for the coal baron Edward Julius Berwind (1848–1936), taking inspiration from the 18th century Château d'Asnières in Asnières-sur-Seine, France. C. H. Miller and E. W. Bowditch, working closely with Trumbauer, designed the gardens and landscape. The Preservation Society of Newport County purchased The Elms in 1962, and opened the house to the public. The Elms was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in New Haven County, Connecticut. It is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The locations of National Register properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may be seen in an online map.
Abby Kelley Foster was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals. She married fellow abolitionist and lecturer Stephen Symonds Foster, and they both worked for equal rights for women and for Africans enslaved in the Americas.
Scotchtown is a plantation located in Hanover County, Virginia, that from 1771 to 1778 was owned and used as a residence by U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry, his wife Sarah and their children. He was a revolutionary and elected in 1778 as the first Governor of Virginia. The house is located in Beaverdam, Virginia, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Ashland, Virginia on VA 685. The house, at 93 feet (28 m) by 35 feet (11 m), is one of the largest 18th-century homes to survive in the Americas. In its present configuration, it has eight substantial rooms on the first floor surrounding a central passage, with a full attic above and English basement with windows below. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Boxwood Hall State Historic Site, located at 1073 East Jersey Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey, is a historic house museum operated by the state of New Jersey. Boxwood Hall was built about 1750, and is a National Historic Landmark for its association with Founding Father Elias Boudinot (1740-1821), who lived here from 1772 to 1795. Boudinot, a lawyer, politician, and diplomat, was president of the Continental Congress 1782–83.
Kimberly Crest House and Gardens is a French château-style Victorian mansion located in Redlands, California. The property is a registered California Historical Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Liberty Farm is a National Historic Landmark at 116 Mower Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built c. 1810, it was the home for most of their married life of Abby Kelley Foster (1810–1887) and Stephen Symonds Foster (1809-1881), early vocal abolitionists and women's rights activists. The Fosters used their house as a shelter on the Underground Railroad, and famously refused to pay taxes on the property because Abby was unable to vote. The property, a private residence not open to the public, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974. In 2018 the building was sold off to a local family.
Abby Hadassah Smith was an early American suffragist who campaigned for property and voting rights from Glastonbury, Connecticut. She was a subject of the book Abby Smith and Her Cows in which her sister Julia Evelina Smith told the story of a tax resistance struggle they undertook in the suffrage cause.
The South Glastonbury Historic District is a historic district in Glastonbury, Connecticut. It encompasses the historic village center of South Glastonbury, which was first settled in the 17th century. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and enlarged in 2009 to include properties further along Main Street as far as Chestnut Hill Road. Locals refer to it as Nayaug.
The National Park System preserves and interprets the history of women in American society. Many national parks, monuments and historic sites represent America's women's history as a primary theme, while numerous others address American women's history somewhere in their programs and preservation activities. The lists of sites below is not exhaustive, but includes sites closely related to themes in U.S. Women's History. Click here for an article on Women in the National Park Service.
The Southworth House is a Classical Revival and Italianate house in Cleveland, Ohio, United States that was built in 1879. Named for its first owner, W.P. Southworth, a leading resident of late nineteenth-century Cleveland, the house has been used for a variety of commercial purposes in recent decades. One of many historic sites in its eastside neighborhood, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984.
Stephen Symonds Foster was a radical American abolitionist known for his dramatic and aggressive style of public speaking, and for his stance against those in the church who failed to fight slavery. His marriage to Abby Kelley brought his energetic activism to bear on women's rights. He spoke out for temperance, and agitated against any government, including his own, that would condone slavery.
Prairie Avenue is a north–south street on the South Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in the Near South Side to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins as a major trail for horseback riders and carriages. During the last three decades of the 19th century, a six-block section of the street served as the residence of many of Chicago's elite families and an additional four-block section was also known for grand homes. The upper six-block section includes part of the historic Prairie Avenue District, which was declared a Chicago Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Branford House is located in Groton, Connecticut, on the campus of UConn Avery Point, which rents it out for events. Branford House was built in 1902 for Morton Freeman Plant, a local financier and philanthropist, as his summer home; he named it after his hometown of Branford, Connecticut. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 23, 1984.
Beallsville Historic District is a 40-acre (16 ha) district in Beallsville, Pennsylvania. It is designated as a historic district by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.
Julia Evelina Smith was an American women's suffrage activist who was the first woman to translate the Bible from its original languages into English. She was also the author of the book Abby Smith and Her Cows, which told the story of her and her sister Abby Hadassah Smith's tax resistance struggle in the suffrage cause while the two were living at Kimberly Mansion in Connecticut.
Eleazer Kimberly was the sixth Secretary of the State of Connecticut.
The Smiths of Glastonbury were two generations of women—a mother and her five daughters—residing in Glastonbury, Connecticut, in the late 18th and 19th century who were early champions of education, abolition, and women's rights. Kimberly Mansion, their former home on Main Street, is now a designated National Historic Landmark, and the family as a whole was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.