By: Jessica Willis, Berkshire Eagle Staff
ADAMS - The sprawling farmhouse at 67 East Road could be just another
North County fixer-upper, but what separates this property from
countless other run-down gems is the very famous women's rights
activist who was born in one of the front rooms on the ground floor.
Yesterday morning, with little fanfare, the birthplace of Susan
B. Anthony was quickly auctioned off to Carol Crossed of Rochester,
N.Y., for $164,500.
The auction was held by JJ Manning Auctioneers, a Cape Cod-based
company, and took place in the back yard of the property. Seven
bidders and a handful of onlookers were in attendance.
"This house has a sense of history," Cecily Abram, a Maryland
resident who visits the Berkshires once a year, said. She laughed
when asked if she intended to place a bid.
Yesterday's sale is another chapter in the property's struggle to
find an identity as either a historic landmark destination or as
a private home. It has been on the National Register of Historic
Places since 1985.
Susan B. Anthony lived on the property for only the first six years
of her life, from 1820 to 1826.
Her home in Rochester, N.Y., where she lived from 1866 until her
death in 1906, was purchased to create a museum in 1945. In 2002,
the Susan B. Anthony house received a $300,000 matching grant through
Save America's Treasures.
In 1998, Anthony's four-bedroom, 2-bathroom birthplace in Adams
was purchased for about $100,000 by Linda and James McConchie of
Lincoln. Linda McConchie is a former executive director of the Freedom
Trail Foundation in Boston. The McConchies had tried, unsuccessfully,
to make the property into a museum.
Lorraine Robinson, chairman of the nonprofit Foundation to Preserve
the Birthplace of Susan B. Anthony, recently attempted to find a
buyer for the property, but to no avail. Similarly, the town of
Adams also was unable to contribute financially to the house's restoration.
The actual auction lasted barely one minute and was led by Jerome
J. Manning, the CFO/president of JJ Manning Auctioneers. After stressing
that the transaction was an "absolute auction," meaning
that the house and the half acre it stood on would belong to the
last and highest bidder regardless of price, "as is, with all
faults." Shortly after 11 a.m., he began his rapid-fire patter.
Bidding started at $300,000 and was quickly reduced to the uncontested
bid of $164,500.
"Come on, folks, that's no price for it," Manning called,
standing on the steps of the back porch. "Do I hear $175,000?
One seventy, anyone?" No one responded. "Susan's turning
over in her grave," he quipped.
Anthony at a glance...
1817: Farmhouse is built by Daniel Anthony, Susan's
father, on Bowen's Corner at East and Walling roads in Adams.
1820: Susan Brownell Anthony is born in Adams at
the farmhouse on East Road. She is the second of seven children.
1826: The Anthony family moves to Battenville,
N.Y.
1852: Susan B. Anthony attends her first temperance
convention and her first women's rights convention.
1856: Anthony becomes an agent for the American
Anti-Slavery Society.
1866: She moves into her home on Madison Street
in Rochester, N.Y.
1872: Anthony is arrested for voting and is indicted
in Albany.
1906: She attends suffrage hearings in Washington.
She dies in her Rochester, N.Y., home on March 13.
1979: Susan B. Anthony dollar coin is officially
released in Rochester, N.Y. Ultimately, almost 889 million are produced
for circulation. The silver coin is similar in size to the quarter,
and the two are often confused, much to the consternation of the
public.
1997: Golden dollar coin replaces the Susan B.
Anthony coin.
1998: James and Linda McConchie purchase Susan
B. Anthony's birthplace in Adams for $100,000.
2006: Susan B. Anthony's birthplace is sold at
auction for $164,500.
Source: www.susanbanthonyhouse.org
...
"It went for a little bit more than we thought it would,"
Manning said after the auction. The house and land had been assessed
for $151,000 in 2005.
Excerpted from The
Berkshire Eagle
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