Welcome to the Stevens & Smith Historic Site Blog
A New Face on Lancaster’s Past
Thursday, December 18, 2008
It seems such a little thing. Metal frames and wood planking. But for the Stevens & Smith Historic Site it is a momentous occasion. Scaffolding is going up in front of the Thaddeus Stevens House on South Queen Street. We’ve begun to put on our public face.
For almost two years our work has progressed underground and behind the scenes as part of the building of the…read moreFrom Civil War Through Civil Rights
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
This Friday and Saturday, August 15th and 16th, the fourth in a series of Quest for Freedom Live & Learn Weekends (http://www.questforfreedom.org/events), sponsored by the PA Office of Tourism and local convention and visitors’ bureaus, will offer participants the chance to connect with history, meet the past and understand the present.
Campaigning at the President’s House on Friday evening at 6:00pm, provides guests an opportunity…read morePennsylvania Weighs In
Friday, August 08, 2008
Today Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell visited Lancaster County on his whistle-stop tour to announce funding support for key economic development projects throughout the Commonwealth. Among those announced is the Trust's Stevens and Smith Historic Site, which is to receive $3 million in matching funds to assist with facade restorations of the historic structures tied to these two American patriots of the 19th century. Once open to the public, this new…read more
JUNETEENTH
Monday, June 23, 2008
In June 1865, more than two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the enslaved Americans of African descent in Texas learned that they were free people. The celebration of this good news brought to them by Major General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865 became the beginning of a holiday known as JUNETEENTH.
For years in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this holiday was celebrated by the black community through Strawberry,…read moreThe Write Stuff
Monday, June 16, 2008
The most important writing of Thaddeus Stevens’ life may well have been the phrasing of the Constitutional Amendments addressing the end of slavery (13th), the provision of equal protection under the law for all citizens (14th) and the right to vote for all male citizens (15th). But his most moving writing is certainly his epitaph:
I repose in this quiet and secluded spot,
Not…read moreCampaign Steering Committee Welcomes New Members, Tours Site
Thursday, May 08, 2008
As the Closer to Equality capital campaign continues to make progress raising critical funds needed to build and open the Stevens and Smith Historic Site, we're pleased to announce the expansion of our project Steering Committee. For several years, our core group of volunteers has been quietly working to assure project success. Many thanks to Chair Margot Brubaker, Reverend Louis Butcher, Jr., HPT past president Rita Byrne, HPT current president…read more
Historic Candidacies
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The 2008 Pennsylvania Primary is over and as the media moves on to Indiana and North Carolina they continue to define only half of the Democratic candidacy as historic. How little they understand the history they are repeating.
For much of the 19th century the women’s suffrage movement was tied to the movement to abolish slavery. Universal Suffrage required, first, that the enslaved be emancipated and then…read moreThe Great Commoner Honored in Bronze
Monday, April 07, 2008
April 4th…we’ve never known the sun to shine regularly on Thaddeus Stevens’ birthday.
Despite April showers, several hundred friends turned out to honor the Great Commoner on the anniversary of his 219th birthday. And what a present to the community. The Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, after several years of planning, fundraising and site preparation, unveiled its “read moreUnveilings
Friday, April 04, 2008
As we've begun to plan exhibits for the Stevens and Smith Historic Site we're finding that a motif of "see" and "unseen" is driving us as we look at aspects of the lives of Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. As a white, male, Congressman, Thaddeus Stevens was seen both in society and by the work that he did. Lydia Hamilton Smith as a black, female, housekeeper was essentially ignored,…read more
What Would Lydia Think?
Thursday, April 03, 2008
We speak rather smugly these days of our rights, what's fair, whether we have equality in our homes, on our jobs, in society. What must Lydia Hamilton Smith felt in her time; during the mid 1800s? She was an American of African and European descent. She was female. She was a widow and mother.
This year, at an event created by the Stevens and Smith Historic Site…read more
