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Anthony Museum Opening Delayed to 2010Staff Reports
iBerkshires
08:22PM / Tuesday, September 01, 2009
 ADAMS, Mass. — Continued research at the birthplace of the town's most famous daughter means the opening of the long-anticipated museum will be put off at least a year.
The board of directors of what is now the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace and Museum announced late last week that the museum will not be ready before early 2010. Still, 2010 will offer some nice round easy-to-remember numbers to mark the opening.
"Next year is the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, and Susan B. Anthony's 190th birthday," said board President Carol Crossed in a statement. "The opening of the museum will be in conjunction with other national events to celebrate women's suffrage."
The 19th Amendment brought women the constitutional right to vote, a right that Anthony fought long and hard for but didn't live to see.
While her home in Rochester, N.Y., has been a museum for some years, her birthplace on East Road passed that her father built in the early 1800s passed from the family's hands long ago. It was purchased in 2006 by Crossed after another failed attempt to turn it into a museum of some type.
Transforming the private home into a historically accurate domicile with educational components has proven difficult for its new nonprofit owners as well.
The second floor, which includes offices and a custodial apartment has been completed, an addition demolished and the formerly white two-story structure painted a more traditional creamy color with black touches. Work has begun on the parking area and visitor's center.
Paint and other elements were being researched to bring the interior as close as possible to the condition it was in when Anthony was a child.
 "We're letting this house tell us. We can't tell the house," said Crossed during an open house last March on the civil rights activist's 189th birthday. "We can't come in and assume things. We have to go very slowly and let it speak to us."
It had been expected to open in the spring, and then July. Historic accuracy has slowed the process, but in the end, according to board member Lorraine Robinson, it will be worth it to the community.
"You have to do this right," said Robinson, a board member and chairman of a committee created to determine how best to preserve the building. "The town of Adams has waited more than 25 years to properly honor one of our nation's most famous women. What's another six months?" |
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