Wealth with a Conscience

Wealth with a Conscience. . , Early whaling merchants lived in elegant houses along the street. But by the time Benjamin Rodman built this federal style home in 1821, many of his wealthy friends were moving uphill away from this shoreside neighborhood. , Though born into a prosperous whaling family, Rodman committed himself to the city’s working poor. He and his wife Susan were founding members of the New Bedford Benevolent Society, created “to devise some means for the relief of the physical and moral wants of the poor of this town.” In the 1830s he began championing the abolition of slavery. While whaling wealth is apparent in the city’s historic houses, the owner’s lives reflected some of the powerful social issues of the time. , Yesterday I suppose you know was an awful storm, but I went in the evening to Ben Rodman’s party. All that clique were there and all talking abolition. Deborah Weston, April 15, 1839, ( photo caption ) , By the 1890s Rodman’s house was hemmed in on all sides by storefronts and warehouse space. Used as a warehouse for forty years, the mansion was purchased and donated to the Waterfront Historic Area League (WHALE) in 1965. WHALE removed the structures modern additions and restored the building.