Fayetteville, NY -- After nine years of fundraising and construction, the restored Matilda Joslyn Gage house is now ready to showcase its new look and open its doors to the public. A grand opening of the renovated Matilda Joslyn Gage Center began Friday, with events and tours scheduled today through Sunday. The official grand opening ceremony will be 2...
View full sizeFilip Georgaklos (left) and Steve Boskos, both of Filip's Home Remodeling, work on the Gage House, home of Matilda Joselyn Gage, at 210 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville. The foundation that runs the house is holding an open house this weekend to celebrate its nearly completed renovation. Fayetteville, NY -- After nine years of fundraising and construction, the restored Matilda Joslyn Gage house is now ready to showcase its new look and open its doors to the public.
A grand opening of the renovated Matilda Joslyn Gage Center began Friday, with events and tours scheduled today through Sunday. The official grand opening ceremony will be 2 p.m. Sunday at the home at 210 E. Genesee St. in Fayetteville. Tours will follow the ceremony, which will feature Harry Carpenter, Gage’s great-grandson, as master of ceremonies.
The total project, including purchase of the home and its subsequent restoration, cost The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation $1 million. Local, state and federal grants, along with $300,000 raised by the foundation, paid for the project, said Sally Roesch Wagner, the foundation’s executive director.
To have the project completed “is exhilarating,” Roesch Wagner said. “Now the fun begins.”
The foundation wants the public to literally write on the walls to suggest what exhibits and programs they’d like to see at the home, she said. There will be whiteboards set up along one wall of each room for people to write down their ideas. “The idea is that we want the community to help us shape what we do here,” she said.
Gage, born in 1826 in Cicero, eventually settled in Fayetteville, where her home became a stop on the Underground Railroad and she became active in women’s suffrage. She died in 1898. Her home is included in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom and the New York State Underground Railroad Heritage Trail.
The Gage foundation, established a decade ago, went to work on the house nine years ago, gutting much of the structure to restore it to look like photographs taken in 1887. Gage lived in there from 1854 to 1898.
“We saved as much of the original home as we could, and all the hardwood floors are original,” Roesch Wagner said. “We had to remove and replace many of the windows and doors and put up new Sheetrock, install new lighting and heating and repaint the entire home.”
The foundation also put on an addition, which is a replica of a shed that existed behind the home. It’s now called the Ruth Putter Welcome Center, named after a local artist. The restored home has six themed rooms on the main floor. Upstairs work is continuing on what will become the Matilda Joslyn Gage library.
View full sizeSally Roesch Wagner, the executive director of the Gage House, home of Matilda Joselyn Gage, at 210 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville, talks with Roger Bradstreet of Neale Moore Classic Wood Working on Monday. The Gage House is holding an open house this weekend to celebrate its completed or nearly completed renovation. The themed rooms are:
• The Haudenosaunee Room, so named because Gage got her vision of how a world of peace and justice worked from the Haudenosaunee. Women had an equal voice in all things.
• The Women’s Rights room, which tells the story beyond the vote, and explains how Gage worked for everything from equal pay for equal work to reproductive rights.
• The Oz Room/Family Parlor where L. Frank Baum, the author of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” married Matilda’s youngest daughter, Maud, in 1882. Gage encouraged her son-in-law to write down his stories.
• The local history room focuses on the region and its human rights contributions.
• The Underground Railroad room: Gage risked prison and a fine to help runaway slaves.
• The Religious Freedom room: Gage believed in the separation of church and state, and clashed with Susan B. Anthony over this belief.
“The themes are all connected by how relevant they are today,” Roesch Wagner said.
To launch the grand opening, Rosemary Rickard Hill, an acclaimed beadwork artist, will complete 10 pieces which will be sold with half the profits given to the foundation. She’s also combining with another artist to put raised beadwork on quilts.
Another exhibit will showcase women’s rights in a dollhouse done by a Seneca Falls artist, and Ruth Putter will display photographs of the restoration work on the home. Another exhibit will feature Oz-themed quilts.
Contact Elizabeth Doran at edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.
