NEWS RELEASE: Historic Huguenot Street Launches Monthly Women’s History Tour

NEW PALTZ, NY (March 17, 2017) – In honor of Women’s History Month and the centennial of the ratification of women’s suffrage in New York, Historic Huguenot Street has developed “In Her Words,” a women’s history tour launching Saturday, March 25, and running monthly through October. The tour will begin at 2 pm at the DuBois Fort Visitor Center.

Developed by HHS’ Public Programming department with the assistance of SUNY New Paltz intern Allison Surgeary, the tour will follow the lives and stories of six women who played a role in local history. Visitors will be guided through four historic buildings and have the opportunity to discover figures from the past through a combination of factual, historical information and cleverly composed monologues written and recorded by HHS staff and volunteers.

Visitors will hear the stories of Manveht and Papochkies, two Munsee women who signed the 1677 Indian Deed; Catherine Blanchan (1629 - 1713), one of the original New Paltz Huguenot settlers; enslaved Africans Rachel and Dinah; Wyntje Hasbrouck (1708 – 1787), a colonial woman who managed her own estate; Cornelia Markle VanWagenen (1775 – 1819), a widow who ran her own business in the early 1800s; Julia “Aunt Judy” Jackson (ca. 1800 – 1898), a freed slave; Eliza Varick Silvernail Ackert (1830 – 1916), the first female editor of the original New Paltz Times; Progressive-era artist Julia McEntee Dillon (1834 – 1919); and Mary Jane Snyder Freer (1862 – 1931), the first New Paltz woman to vote in 1918.

Pre-registration is required and is available at huguenotstreet.org/inherwords. General admission $15; 10% discount for seniors, children under 12, military families, and those who have donated $50 or more within the calendar year.

A National Historic Landmark District, Historic Huguenot Street is a 501(c)3 non-profit that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres that was the heart of the original 1678 New Paltz settlement, including seven stone houses that date to the early eighteenth century.  It was founded in 1894 as the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society to preserve the nationally acclaimed collection of stone houses. Since then, Historic Huguenot Street has grown into an innovative museum, chartered as an educational corporation by the University of the State of New York, that is dedicated to protecting our historic buildings, conserving an important collection of artifacts and manuscripts, and promoting the stories of the Huguenot Street families, from the sixteenth century to today. 

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Contact
Kaitlin Gallucci
Director of Marketing & Communications
(845) 255-1660
media@huguenotstreet.org