• First Wave Statue Exhibit

    Women's Rights

    National Historical Park New York

Wesleyan Chapel

 
chapel

Wesleyan Chapel, site of the First Women's Rights Convention

NPS Photo

The Wesleyan Chapel was built in 1843. On July 19 and 20, 1848, the First Women's Rights Convention was held here. Even though Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the only one of the five organizers to live in Seneca Falls, the Wesleyan Chapel was well known to them all. The church was a local haven for antislavery activity, political rallies, and free speech events.

The original red brick Wesleyan Methodist Church was sold by the congregation in 1871 and extensively altered by subsequent owners. When the site was purchased by the National Park Service in 1985, very little original fabric remained. The site today offers a unique display of the highlighted historic fabric of the original building.

 
View the Wesleyan Chapel Historic Structure Report 1987 (pdf)
 
 
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Did You Know?

Wesleyan Chapel, site of the First Women's Rights Convention, as it is preserved today.

Did you know that one of the organizers of the First Women's Rights Convention in America, Martha Coffin Wright, frequently housed fugitive slaves in her kitchen? More...