Things to Do in Seneca Falls, NY

Seneca Falls could be just any formerly industrial small town in upstate New York, one with a main street, and a mill, and a body of water running through it. But more than a century ago something special happened in Seneca Falls, NY, and it is reason to go to this place today.

This post may contain affiliate links in which I earn a small commission if you click on the link and make a purchase from the site.

What was the Women’s Rights Convention?

Back in 1848, before women had the right to vote, before slaves were emancipated, before the Civil War had taken place, a handful of women in upstate New York organized the first women’s rights convention in the United States. More than 300 people showed up in Seneca Falls, N.Y. for the two-day meeting—pretty impressive in a time before crowdsourcing and email blasts could inspire like-minded souls to assemble.

Female attendees at the get-together at the Seneca Falls Wesleyan Chapel sought to “secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise,” the ninth resolution approved at the convention explained.

“It was a diffident but serious group which met in enveloping crinolines and quivering plumed bonnets at Seneca Falls, N.Y., on July 19, 1848,” the New York Times wrote 75 years later. The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of Fight for Women’s Rights, N.Y. Times, June 24, 1923, p. 3. Astonishingly, women in the United States did not gain the right to vote as a whole for another 72 years after that 1848 convention. (Some states granted women the right to vote before the U.S. Constitution did.)

Congress passed the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919 and it was ratified in 1920. The amendment specifies that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by a State on account of sex.”

Women’s Rights National Historical Park

All I really know on my visit to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and Visitor Center is that something happened in Seneca Falls having to do with women’s right to vote. Women in the United States did not obtain that right until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920. Women in Russia got the right to vote before American women did.

What Was the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments?

Back in 1848, women’s suffrage was a mere moonbeam in the long distant future. A handful of women put together the Women’s Rights Convention and passed the Declaration of Sentiments, which enumerated the law’s failings in the United States and called for a few areas of correction.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal,” the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments proclaimed. Lacking the legal right to vote was not the only injury and usurpation instituted by the male world against women at the time. Women lacked property rights, custody rights, education rights, admission to certain career paths, and the right to equal pay.

The women’s rights conference took place on July 19, 1848, when only women attended, and on July 20, 1848, when men participated as well. Notable participants include women suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass, a former slave. Notably not present was Susan B. Anthony.

Why Was the Woman’s Rights Convention Held in Seneca Falls, N.Y.?

Cady Stanton was well-traveled for the period but happened to be living in the area, as was Mott as well as other organizers of the meeting. Cady Stanton, married and a mother to several children at the time of the Women’s Rights Convention, had responsibilities at home, which is how she ended up writing a lot, and Susan B. Anthony, who remained childless and single, traveled and delivered speeches. Cady Stanton and Anthony did not meet until 1851.

Visitors to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park Visitor Center, more a museum of sorts than a traditional park, learn about the convention and the long struggle for equality that persists to this day. Anthony died in 1906. Cady Stanton died in 1902. Douglass died in 1895. Mott died in 1880. The idea of working persistently toward something that you do not achieve in your own lifetime cannot help but come to mind as visitors learn about the decades of efforts by so many who sought equality and the right to vote.

Visitors have an opportunity to walk into the past a bit as the Women’s Rights National Historical Park includes the Wesleyan Chapel, where the convention took place, as well as the Cady Stanton House, the M’Clintock House (where the Declaration of Sentiments was drafted), and the Hunt House, where the convention was planned.

Women’s Rights National Historical Park Visitor Center, 136 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Celebrating Women

Not far from the Women’s Rights National Historical Park Visitor Center, and also on Fall Street, is the National Women’s Hall of Fame, celebrating women of accomplishment, both contemporary and historically.

Continuing your exploration of Fall Street, check out WomanMade Products for books, souvenirs, jewelry, and more. I bought a Dissent air freshener for my car in the shape of Supreme Court Justice Ruther Bader Ginsburg. She smells like bubble gum.

National Women’s Hall of Fame, 76 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

WomanMade Products, 91 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Park in Seneca Falls, N.Y. with the Seneca Knitting Mills in the background. Photo credit: L. Tripoli.

The History of Seneca Falls

Bits of the history of Seneca Falls can be gleaned simply by walking around town where signs inform visitors about important events of the past. Similarly, storefront window displays also tell the story of the suffragist movement and its connection with this village, now with a population of about 6,500 people.

For greater depth, head to the Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum, which is housed in an historic mansion from the 1800s. For history of a different sort, visit the Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry to learn the relationship of industrialization to the waterways of this area—and how both were managed. Trinity Episcopal Church, built in 1885, on Van Cleef Lake provides both a serene photo opportunity and allows for reflection of a more spiritual sort should one be so inclined.

Seneca Falls Historical Society Museum, 55 Cayuga Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry, 89 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Trinity Episcopal Church, 27 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Eating in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

For refreshment, stop at Bee’s Café for breakfast, lunch, or a sweet. For more formal dining, check out the restaurant at the Gould Hotel.

Bee’s Café, 107 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

Gould Hotel, 108 Fall Street, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148

For Bashful Adventurers

• The village of Seneca Falls is quite walkable.
• The Women’s Rights National Historical Park and Visitor Center and other local attractions offer plenty of written material on the history of suffrage—making them ideal for solo and bashful travelers.
• If you are the bookish sort, bring along a book bag. The Women’s Rights National Historical Park and Visitor Center gift shop includes books, and WomanMade Products does as well. I came home with quite a few titles.

—Lori Tripoli

Lori Tripoli is the editor and publisher of Bashful Adventurer. Based in the New York City vicinity, she writes about travel for a variety of publications.

Contact Lori at loritripoli@bashfuladventurer.com.

 

Share on Pinterest!

 

 

Have you visited Seneca Falls, NY? What did you like most about it?