Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District is a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located at

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland *Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district from ...

Cayuga County, New York Cayuga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 76,248. Its county seat and largest city is Auburn. The county was named for the Cayuga people, one of the Indian tribes in the Iroquois Conf ...

. The district consists of 29 properties containing 27 contributing primary buildings, one contributing site (cemetery), three contributing

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

s and one non-contributing building in the historic core of the hamlet of Sherwood. It encompasses the entire hamlet and includes several commercial / civic structures at the intersection of

New York State Route 34B New York State Route 34B (NY 34B) is a north–south state highway located within Tompkins and Cayuga counties in Central New York in the United States. Its northern terminus is located at a junction with NY 34 by the hamlet of Fl ...

and Sherwod Road. The structures commemorate the historical

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

community's dedication to abolition, women's rights, and education. ''See also:'' and

History

Sherwood was settled in 1794 on former agricultural lands of the

Cayuga people The Cayuga ( Cayuga: Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ, "People of the Great Swamp") are one of the five original constituents of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), a confederacy of Native Americans in New York. The Cayuga homeland lies in the Finger Lakes regi ...

. Access to the area was available via both land and water and was a center for local trade. The community was a mixture of families who were Quakers migrating from surrounding areas and England or

freed slaves A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom a ...

of African descent and many travelled or had connections to communities outside of Sherwood. The hamlet was shaped by Quaker ideologies which promoted abolition, women's rights and education. Equal rights activities attracted various reformers including:

Abby Kelley Abby Kelley Foster (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and radical social Reform movement#United States reform movements of the 1840s – 1930s, reformer active from the 1830s ...

, Harriet K. Hunt, Mary and Emily Edmondson,

Joseph John Gurney Joseph John Gurney (2 August 1788 – 4 January 1847) was a banker in Norwich, England and a member of the Gurney family of that city. He became an evangelical minister of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), whose views and actions led, ...

Sojourner Truth Sojourner Truth (; born Isabella Baumfree; November 26, 1883) was an American abolitionist of New York Dutch heritage and a women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to f ...

, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw,

Susan B. Anthony Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to s ...

, and

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, us ...

. On January 20, 1835 both Quakers and African Americans signed the first antislavery petition from Cayuga County and sent to Congress. Residents of the community also participated in the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

with

freedom seekers In the United States, fugitive slaves or runaway slaves were terms used in the 18th and 19th century to describe people who fled slavery. The term also refers to the federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. Such people are also called freed ...

either staying in the area or moving on North to Canada. The activism of the community around equal rights lasted long after the Civil War due to rich agricultural land which promoted stable families in the area. Local institutions included the

Women’s Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international Temperance movement, temperance organization, originating among women in the United States Prohibition movement. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social ref ...

, the Sherwood Political Equality Club, the Sherwood Ramabai Circle, and the Sherwood Select School. While the whole community participated in these movements, it was three generations of the Howland family – Slocum Howland, his daughter

Emily Howland Emily Howland (November 20, 1827 – June 29, 1929) was a philanthropist and educator. Especially known for her activities and interest in the education of African-Americans, she was also a strong supporter of women's rights and the temperan ...

, his son and daughter-in-law William and Hannah Howland, and his granddaughter Isabel Howland – who were among the leaders both locally and nationally. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2008.

Architecture

The district consists of 29 properties, the majority of Sherwood, 10 are related to African Americans, 5 to the Underground Railroad, 16 to Quakers, and 11 to education. Properties were built between the 1820s and 1910 and are one-to-two stories constructed of heavy timber. Architectural styles include

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, Stick Style, and Victorian. Located within the district are the separately listed

Howland Cobblestone Store The Howland Cobblestone Store, also known as the Howland Stone Store Museum, is an early 19th-century store significant for its unusual cobblestone architecture. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. At the time of ...

, now a museum which includes a large collection of women’s rights memorabilia, and

Slocum and Hannah Howland House The Slocum and Hannah Howland House is located at 1781 Sherwood Road in the hamlet of Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York. It was one of the most active Underground Railroad stations in New York. History Slocum Howland (1791-1881) was a Quaker ...

Gallery

File:HowlandCobblestoneStore.jpg, Howland Cobblestone Store File:HowlandHouse.jpg, Slocum and Hannah Howland House File:Sherwood House.jpg, Sherwood House and Annex

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in New York Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Historic districts in Cayuga County, New York 1820s establishments in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Cayuga County, New York