Photo Tour of Harriet Tubman National Historical Park Auburn NY-Tubman’s Home

Two years ago, my spouse Michele and I visited a number of sites in the Finger Lakes region of New York connected with Abolition, the Underground Railroad, Women’s Rights, and the movements for Universal Adult Suffrage. The first set of sites that I want to discuss is connected to the Union scout, Underground Railroad conductor, and campaigner for human rights Harriet Tubman.

I took the photo below of her home just outside of Auburn, New York. She moved to Auburn from her refuge in Canada in 1857 and became associated with William Seward, then Senator from New York and the most prominent man in Auburn. In 1859, Seward reportedly offered to give her a small seven acre farm with a house on it. Tubman purchased it from him instead.

Her home was originally a white wood frame house. The house burned in 1870 and this brick house was built to replace it.

The new house was built by Tubman’s husband, a brick mason, and her bricklayer nephews. There was a kiln on the property and these bricks may have been made there.

Michele was awed by the idea of touching bricks by the door that Tubman must have touched and that her family had put in place. This is one reason you go to the places where history happened.

Michele was fascinated by the idea that ordinary homes were right next to the Tubman Farm. A chiropractor’s office was across the street. “Wow, Harriet Tubman must have walked along that road that they live on.”

You can’t go inside her home. It is undergoing extensive restoration. Inside you can see that the lathing has recently been replaced in preparation for plastering.

Tubman raised pigs and chickens on her farm. Walking around, we saw this old apple tree and imagined that it was descended from the trees in the orchard Tubman planted.

Across the path from her house you can see the Tubman Home for the Aged which she helped to establish in 1908.

The Home for the Aged was where she lived from 1911 until she died in 1913 at the age of 91 or 92. You can tour the Home for the Aged and see the room where Tubman spent the last two years of her life, including her last day alive. The tour is five dollars. A little girl was on the tour with us and she pronounced it “Awesome.” Michele asked her what was her favorite part, and she said “Everything.” I think the thing that most impressed her was that she got to touch a tool that Tubman had touched.

The one drawback is that you are not allowed to take pictures inside of the home for the aged.

Syracuse University has been excavating at the site for nearly 20 years. Here are pieces of glassware that were in the original wood house that she lived in from 1859 until 1870.

This 1911 photo of Tubman at her farm in Auburn was taken the year she entered the Home for the Aged.

For more on this new National Park Service site, CLICK HERE.

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