Hunt House at Women’s Rights National Historical Park

401 East Main Street, Waterloo, New York

The Hunt House was the location where the idea for the First Women’s Rights Convention was conceived during an afternoon tea party in 1848. It is not open to the public. However, there is a parking area, and visitors are welcome to stop at the house and take a look from the outside from dawn until dusk year-round.

The house was built in 1828 by Richard P. Hunt, a major local industrialist and landholder, after he purchased the 146-acre property in 1827. Richard, who had moved to Waterloo in 1821, quickly became part of the local Quaker community and aligned himself with the men responsible for the village’s economic development. He began purchasing land in the area, acquiring over 43 land tracts during his life. While his major focus was on his multiple business interests, he also supported local political, cultural, and reform concerns. He became the first supervisor of the Town of Waterloo and was one of the largest contributors to help with the construction of the Wesleyan Chapel.

In 1845, he married his fourth wife, Jane, a Quaker from Philadelphia. As progressive Quakers who believed in social reform and humanitarian causes, Richard and Jane were both active supporters of abolitionism and equal rights. Their home in Waterloo was even considered to be a station on the Underground Railroad, as it was widely known that they made their carriage house available to travelers in need.

On July 9, 1848, Jane Hunt hosted a small tea party with Lucretia Mott, Mary Wright (Lucretia’s sister), Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann M’Clintock, who were all advocates for equal rights. During their conversations, Elizabeth began voicing her discontent regarding the treatment of women in society, something she and Lucretia had previously discussed and experienced together years earlier.

Lucretia, a well-known abolitionist, first met Elizabeth at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Elizabeth was there with her delegate husband, Henry, and Lucretia was one of six women delegates invited to speak at the convention. Unfortunately, just before the convention was set to begin, the men voted to exclude the women from participating, citing fears that women’s rights issues might overshadow the goal of ending slavery worldwide. As a result, the women were required to stay segregated in the spectator gallery where they could still watch and listen. The decision seemed to reflect a similar attitude usually directed toward children—that they should be seen and not heard. After being denied full access to the proceedings, the two women decided to hold their own convention and form a society to advocate for women’s rights.

Eight years later, as the group of women who had gathered at the Hunt House for tea continued to express their concerns and discuss changes they wished for in the future, the idea for the First Women’s Rights Convention was conceived. Knowing that Lucretia was only in New York for a short time, they decided the convention needed to take place before she travelled back home to Philadelphia. That same day, the women wrote an announcement for the First Women’s Rights Convention, to be held in ten days, and sent it to the local newspaper. This officially set the wheels in motion for the women’s rights movement.

When Richard died in 1856, the Hunt House property was divided between Jane and his six children, with Jane receiving one-third of the land and use of the house. Over the years, the properties continued to be divided between surviving heirs and were eventually sold to private owners.

In 1999, the Hunt House property (now only 2.74 acres) was put up for sale. It was jointly purchased by the Trust for Public Land and the National Trust for Historic Preservation with the intention of transferring the property to the National Park Service. The Hunt House property was officially acquired by the federal government on September 14, 2001, for inclusion in Women’s Rights National Historical Park.

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