Wesleyan Chapel at Women’s Rights National Historical Park

The Wesleyan Chapel is located at 136 Fall Street in Seneca Falls.

The Wesleyan Chapel was the site of the First Women’s Rights Convention held on July 19 and 20, 1848. It was built in October 1843 by the Wesleyan Methodists, a group of abolitionists that split from the mainstream Methodist Church. The chapel quickly became a local haven for antislavery activity, political rallies, and free speech events.

It was during a tea party at Jane Hunt’s home that the idea for the First Women’s Rights Convention was conceived. Attending were Lucretia Mott, her sister Martha White, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann M’Clintock. They decided to hold it at the Wesleyan Chapel because it was considered the only large building in the area that would open its doors for such a convention.

The women gathered again a few days later on July 16th at the home of Mary Ann M’Clintock to continue planning the convention. During the meeting, they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, a foundational document in the women’s rights movement. It was modeled after the Declaration of Independence, which had been signed just 72 years earlier. It outlined the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens and included 16 grievances, such as the lack of representation in government, the absence of property rights in marriage, the discrimination in divorce law, and the inequality in education and employment opportunities.

Around 300 people attended the First Women’s Rights Convention, which consisted of six different sessions across two days. It concluded with 100 people—68 women and 32 men—signing the Declaration of Sentiments and 12 resolutions for reform.

After the original building was sold by the congregation in 1871, it was used for a variety of businesses over the years including a public hall and meeting space, an opera house, a furniture store, a movie theater, a car dealership, a repair shop, and even a laundromat. In April 1985, the laundromat owner sold the building to the National Park Service.

Over the years, the chapel structure was modified by the various businesses. By the time the National Park Service acquired it, it looked like a typical small-town retail store. An archeological evaluation was done to determine which sections of the building were original. They uncovered the stone foundation, some wall plaster, brick portions of the east and west walls, and a few wood trusses and rafters from the roof.

Part of the original plaster wall from the Wesleyan Chapel, Women’s Rights National Historical Park

The National Park Service decided to hold an open design competition to determine how to preserve the chapel and commemorate the First Women’s Rights Convention. It was the first federally sponsored design competition since the 1920s. The winning design incorporated the original remains of the chapel with a new public outdoor space, Declaration Park, which connects the Wesleyan Church with the Visitor Center. It features an amphitheater and a stone waterwall engraved with the Declaration of Sentiments and its signers.