Anthony Museum Plans Opening Ceremony Sunday
 Anthony was born on East Road in Adams in 1820, a century before women could vote. |
The opening is a year later than planned because of delays in the restoration process. Residents were given a sneak peek of the work under way at last year's birthday celebration. Waiting a year, however, meant the museum opens for the 90th anniversary of Anthony's lifelong goal — passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women their long-delayed right to vote.
The former home of the Anthony family has been undergoing nearly four years of research and restoration. The 192-year-old house on East Road was built by Anthony's father, Daniel, who operated a store out of the first floor. Anthony was born in the house two years after it was built, likely in the south parlor looking out toward Tophet Brook where her father's textile mill stood.
Anthony and her parents moved from the area when she was a child to upstate New York, where she became a prominent writer and lecturer on abolitionism and women's right to vote. She frequently returned to the Mother Town to visit family until her death in 1906.
The house has been restored to reflect her childhood with exhibits looking at the wide-ranging legacy of Anthony including Quaker life, temperance, opposition to slavery and abortion, women's suffrage, and 19th Amendment, called by some the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.
State Sen. Marian Walsh of Suffolk has been invited to be the guest speaker. She was the first woman from her district elected to both the House of Represenatives and the Senate. She is currently the Senate majority whip and is vice chairman of the Senate Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee and is a member of the Committees on Community Development and Small Business and on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development.
Boston Magazine in 2003 named her one of "Boston's 100 Most Powerful Women.""We are honored to have Senator Walsh address the Susan B. Anthony ribbon-cutting ceremony," said Sally Winn, the museum's executive director. "She embodies the ideals of women in leadership that was Anthony's life's work. Her service with Massachusetts tourism and cultural community is especially relevant to what we are doing with this Berkshire treasure, the childhood home of Anthony, indeed the nation's most famous daughter."
Following the ceremony, a birthday celebration with cake will be held at Memorial Hall in the Adams Free Library. Reservations are required for the party and limited seating is available for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Contact Mary Lou Beaudin at 413-743-3516 or staff@sbanthonybirthplace.com.
The museum and gift shop will be open for a free public preview from Monday, Feb. 15, through Sunday, Feb. 21, from 10 to 4.
