March is Women’s History Month and once a week OLMC will feature stories from the rich tradition of women in our local area and beyond!
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Did you know a famous suffragette lived in Tenafly, just blocks away from the Academy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel?
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American writer and activist who was a leader of the women’s rights movement in the U.S. during the mid- to late-19th century. She was the main force behind the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, the first convention to be called for the sole purpose of discussing women’s rights, and was the primary author of its Declaration of Sentiments. Her demand for women’s right to vote generated a controversy at the convention but quickly became a central tenet of the women’s movement. She was also active in other social reform activities, especially abolitionism.
The house was built in 1868 near the Tenafly train station. Stanton lived in the home from 1868 to 1887, although her husband mostly resided in New York City. Income from Stanton’s speeches and writings were used to maintain the property. During Stanton’s time living in Tenafly, Susan B. Anthony was a frequent visitor as the two women worked on advancing women’s rights. While living in Tenafly, Stanton and Anthony collaborated on a three-volume History of Woman Suffrage. Stanton was also living in Tenafly when she attempted to vote only to be turned away at the polls in 1880. One of Stanton’s daughter was married on the house’s lawn. Stanton sold the house after the death of her husband.
Stanton’s home in Tenafly was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. Her home in Seneca Falls was earlier declared a National Historic Landmark, in 1965.