As you may have seen in the latest newsletter (please forgive the typos I only noticed after it went out, it was an emotional one for me), I'm spending this week in the company of one of my dearest friends. Rachel, who has contributed to a number of the Bethlehem posts on the blog, is back with us for the occasion of my birthday week, and it takes some of the sting out of getting older. We're having plenty of good nerdy fun with my usual wrecking crew, including having spent Labor Day at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. There's nothing quite like having random strangers in funny costumes walk up to you and start singing birthday songs.
I wanted to give a quick plug here for the upcoming Museum Day, which will be all day long on Saturday, September 17th. Anyone carrying a Museum Day ticket will be granted free admission to participating museums throughout the country! You can download one free ticket per email address, so to get instructions and find out which Pennsylvania museums are taking part in the event, click here. (Not going to be in Pennsylvania? Just uncheck it from the box on the left to see participating museums across the United States.)
As for today, we're going to meander back down to Montgomery County and pay a visit to a beautiful still-standing structure from the anti-slavery movement. Many thanks to my new contacts at the Historical Society of Montgomery County for their kind remarks and helpful information!
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| The marker stands near the gates to the Corson property at 4006 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting |
I've mentioned this regrettable act in other blog posts. Because of this law being passed, it became a federal crime for anyone to assist an escaped slave. Pennsylvania did not allow slavery as a state law, but they also could not defy the federal law and prevent anyone from coming into the commonwealth to take back an escaped slave, nor were Pennsylvanians supposed to provide shelter, food, or other help to an escaped slave making their way north. Of course, plenty of people chose to ignore this last part, or we wouldn't have much of a story today. The Quakers were, as a community, extremely opposed to slavery; as I mentioned in my post about Richard Moore, there were many slaves who were advised to trust no white people except for the Quakers. So in 1831, the Plymouth Meeting Anti-Slavery Society was established to give the Quakers a place to discuss the subject and find ways to help the abolition movement. In 1837 this led to the establishment of the Montgomery County Anti-Slavery Society.
The property which includes Abolition Hall was then owned by George and Martha (Maulsby) Corson. They were very supportive of the abolition movement; both his parents and hers had sheltered escaped slaves making their way north. They were also good friends with Benjamin Lundy, who was a prominent member of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the publisher of its weekly newspaper; he inspired them to establish a major Underground Railroad station on their farm. From their home at the crossroads of Plymouth Meeting, conductors escorted slaves to other stations in Pennsylvania communities like Upper Dublin, Quakertown, and Horsham; from there they could make their way to New York, then freedom in Canada. According to publications by the Historical Society of Montgomery County, the existence of the station on the Corson farm was a very open secret - at least, among the Quakers. Martha Corson had inherited their house from her family, and it had stood on the spot for decades; it was thus extremely well known. This made it easy to direct escaped slaves to the property.
The danger was increased in 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Act made it not only a federal crime to help escaped slaves, but also worsened the punishment for conviction; anyone found guilty of doing so would have to pay a $1,000 fine (that's just shy of $38,000 in today's money) and spend six months in prison. The Corsons defiantly continued their work and were involved in the liberation of Jane Johnson, a very controversial incident which exposed a loophole in the law.
This is a very short form of the event as I understand it. Jane Johnson and her two sons were slaves, whose owner brought them with him in 1855 to Pennsylvania; they therefore did not enter the commonwealth as escaped slaves. However, while staying in a Philadelphia hotel, Johnson asked one of the hotel porters to help her escape. The porter contacted William Still, a free black man who was a prominent member of the abolition movement, and he and lawyer Passmore Williamson made their way to the docks, where Johnson and her master were on a ferry bound for New Jersey. They explained that Pennsylvania law gave Johnson and her sons the right to leave the ferry as free people. They escorted the Johnsons off of the ferry, much to the indignation of their master. Williamson was arrested for violating the Fugitive Slave Act, but he successfully argued that Johnson had not entered Pennsylvania as a fugitive, since her master had brought her there, and she was entitled to freedom under state law. Johnson herself was hidden at the Corson farm during the trial, though she appeared as a surprise witness to testify that she had walked away voluntarily (and thus was not stolen property), and the charges were dismissed. Johnson was returned to the Corson farm for her protection until she could be smuggled to Boston, where she was reunited with her children.
Not long after this incident, the Plymouth Friends Meeting stopped allowing the anti-slavery society to use the meeting house for their gatherings. They had permitted it for years, but a church which had hosted abolitionist speakers was mysteriously burned down and they decided they couldn't take chances anymore. So George Corson took matters into his own hands. In 1856, he built a lecture hall above his carriage house, providing at his own expense a comfortable and well-lit space in which the anti-slavery society could hold meetings and listen to lectures by famous abolitionists. Guests of the anti-slavery society who spoke in Corson's hall included Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Edit 2/22/2023: Roy Wilson, who once lived on the property, has shared with me the fact that the building pictured at left is the old Maulsby barn. The real Abolition Hall is behind this building, and not visible from the street. Thank you for the correction!
George Corson died in 1860, and Martha followed him ten years later; both are buried in the Plymouth Meeting Friends Cemetery. (The meeting house has a marker of its own, so I'll be getting to it down the line.) William Still memorialized them both in his history about the Underground Railroad, recalling that George was among the most devoted to the cause and that Martha, "his excellent wife," never failed to do everything she could to make the escaped slaves comfortable while they were in her home.
Abolition Hall, and the rest of the Corson property, passed to their daughter Helen and her husband Thomas Hovenden. Both were artists; Thomas is most famous for his painting The Last Moments of John Brown. Their own daughter Martha, also an artist, lived there. The last member of the Corson family to call the property home was Nancy Corson, George and Martha's great-granddaughter, who died in 2012.
In 1961, Plymouth Meeting was designated a Pennsylvania historic district. In 1971, the Maulsby-Corson-Hovenden property was endangered by a planned highway which would, among other things, require Abolition Hall to be demolished, but the district became listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the structure was saved. Abolition Hall received its PHMC marker in 2000. In the 2010s it again became endangered by a rezoning plan which would have meant relocating Abolition Hall, but this met with tremendous opposition; the Friends of Abolition Hall protested, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia put Abolition Hall and Hovenden House on their list of 'places to save,' and Preservation Pennsylvania added the property to their 2017 "Pennsylvania At Risk" list. Abolition Hall was also a 2018 recipient of the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Initiative Award for Celebrating People Saving Places from Preservation Pennsylvania.
Finally, in 2021 and 2022, they seem to have all come to an agreement - thanks in no small part to a generous donation from the Karabots Foundation, the former Corson family property will become the new home of the Whitemarsh Art Center. The buildings will be preserved, the history maintained, and the art center will have a new home - something it has been desperately seeking since the pandemic.
As of this writing, it's expected that closing on the property will take place in the next couple of months. Expect some exciting things to be coming out of Montgomery County as 2022 draws to an end!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Laura, your article is well written and informative. However, please note that the photo you include and identify as the carriage house was neither a carriage house nor Abolition Hall, although several websites identify it as such. This stone building was generally referred to as the Maulsby Barn. In it's original form it was a "bank barn" with large double farm doors for wagons to enter, where the front door now stands. Note the sloping ground up to the front door. The Maulsby barn was renovated into a family home around 1950, as it appears now. Abolition Hall is a smaller building behind the Maulsby Barn and not readily visible from this street. By way of background, Nancy Corson and I wrote the inscription you see on the historical marker, and I installed it. My wife Ann (a descendant) and I lived on the property until recently. Thank you for you warm and diligently researched article about this important historical site.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all of this very helpful information, Roy! (Sorry for the delayed response.) I've updated the post accordingly and credited you with the correction. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post!
DeleteThe acquisition of the Corson Homestead was made possible by the combination of a generous gift from the Karabots Foundation and an almost equal investment from the Whitemarsh Township Open Space Fund, which is capitalized by local tax dollars. Title to the 10.45-acre homestead is held jointly (50/50) by Whitemarsh Township and the Whitemarsh Community Art Center. As noted in public documents released in connection with the acquisition, the Art Center will be the sole occupant of the Hovenden House; the use and occupancy of the Maulsby Barn and Abolition Hall have yet to be determined. The Friends of Abolition Hall was formed early in 2016 in response to a national developer's plan to construct townhouses on the open fields. The relocation of Abolition Hall was not part of that plan. The award that you reference was bestowed upon the Friends of Abolition Hall for its education and advocacy. The "official website" is merely an informational video created by a group of concerned volunteers. The linked Facebook page was created by the Friends of Abolition Hall. The Township and the Art Center continue to negotiate the details of an operating agreement that will address occupancy, use, maintenance, and more. A fourth structure, the longtime tenant house that fronts onto Marple Lane, might be sold (after a subdivision plan is approved). All agreements, subdivision plans, and sales are subject to public discussion and a public vote by the Township Board of Supervisors. The Township has committed to hosting meetings to engage the public in discussions and planning for the homestead. The eight acres of open fields contain precious wetlands, documented by the Army Corps of Engineers. Plymouth Meeting was Pennsylvania's first National Historic Register District, and this homestead is one of six properties identified as contributing to the significance of the District.
ReplyDeleteOne should always question the veracity and motives of someone who signs their name "anonymous".
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