Paulsdale is a historic estate and

house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a v ...

Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey Mount Laurel is a township in Burlington County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a suburb of Philadelphia and part of the South Jersey region. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 41,864, reflecting an increase of 1, ...

. Built about 1840, it was the birthplace and childhood home of Alice Paul (1885-1977), a major leader in the

Women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

movement in the United States, whose activism led to passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote. It was added to 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 ...

on July 5, 1989, for its significance in social history and politics/government. Paulsdale was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1991. With

History

The main house at Paulsdale was built about 1800 by Benjamin Hooton. The Paul family purchased the farm around 1883. The property remained in the Paul family until 1958, and served as a sort of "home base" for activist Alice Paul, who was born here in 1885. For much of her adult life she lived an itinerant lifestyle, driven by her activism for women's suffrage. Paulsdale was a place she regularly returned to, holding meetings and strategy sessions for her campaigns. It was sold out of the family in 1958, after her brother's death. During the 1950s, the property was divided into two parcels: of farmland and the remaining which included the house and farm buildings. The larger became a housing development, while the smaller remained a private residence until it was purchased by the Alice Paul Institute in 1990. The house has been restored to the condition when Alice Paul lived there. It now serves as a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

and a home for the institute. The purpose of the institute is to make sure Alice Paul's legacy survives by enhancing the knowledge of

future generations Future generations are cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations, and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The moral patienthood of future g ...

on the topic of human rights.

References

External links

Official site
{{NRHP in Burlington County, New Jersey Houses in Burlington County, New Jersey National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey Historic house museums in New Jersey Biographical museums in New Jersey Museums in Burlington County, New Jersey Women's museums in the United States Mount Laurel, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Burlington County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places Alice Paul Birthplaces of individual people

History

See also

References

External links