Stanton's Grassmere

Stanton's Grassmere. . When the Stanton family moved to Seneca Falls in 1847, the house was nearly twice as large as it now is but dilapidated and overgrown. Acting as her own general contractor, Elizabeth Cady Stanton hired workers and oversaw its refurbishment. The Stantons named the house 'Grassmere' after poet William Wordsworth ’s English home , a "landscape that inspired some of his poetic dreams." , Stanton often managed this household and her family alone. Her husband, Henry, served in the New York State legislature; a lawyer and reformer, he agitated for the abolition of slavery. Stanton ’s father, Daniel Cady, gave this house to his daughter. Under the Married Women’s Property Act of 1848 , a state law that allowed women to retain property received as a gift or inheritance , Stanton owned this property in her own name. She sold it in 1862 when the Stantons moved to New York City. , The house . . . had been closed for some years and needed many repairs, and the grounds were overgrown with weeds. My father gave me a check and said, with a smile, "You believe in woman’s capacity to do and dare; now go ahead and put your place in order:"’ . . . I set the carpenters, painters, paperhangers, and gardeners at work, built a new kitchen and woodhouse, and in one month took possession. , Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eighty Years and More, 1898