On Friday Dan and I drove to Washington to visit Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass from 1877 until his death in 1895. The home was preserved by his 2nd wife Anna and in 1962 became a National Historic Site.
The house sits on a hill and has views in all directions.
Douglass was the 2nd owner of the house and added to it extensively.
If you are not familiar with Frederick Douglass you should read his first autobiography: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dan recently did and I had read it years ago. He was an amazing man, who with no formal education became an accomplished author, statesman, orator, and outspoken defender of abolition and women's rights.
Our visit started at the information center.
We joined a kindergarten class to watch the informative video about Douglass' life, then signed up for the tour joining a group from North Carolina.
While we waited we explored the exhibits there.
Douglass was a tall man as can be seen by this life sized statue. Dan is 6'3".
He came to Washington because of his appointment as US Marshall.
We walked up the hill to the house for the tour.
These first graders are headed back to their bus.
The front porch with the views.
Stepping inside the front hall the stairs to the 2nd floor is in front of you and two parlors on either side.
The family parlor was to the right with the dining room beyond it.
The formal parlor was to the left with Douglass' study beyond that.
I could capture this portrait only by taken the photo through the mirror.
Upstairs on the 2nd floor were 5 bedrooms. There was also a third floor with more rooms that we didn't see.
In Douglass' time lights were kerosene and heat was from burning coal in fireplaces and stoves.
There was no running water and plumbing was never added.
Most of the furnishings are original to the house since it was never occupied by any other families.
Quite a lovely home and worth the visit to learn about Douglass'.
5 comments:
...I should this on my list of things to see. I was driving today in downtown Rochester and saw some of the 13 statues erected to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass' birth.
A very interesting house to visit and it is well preserved. I had never heard of this man and indeed he was a great man.
We would enjoy a visit here. Douglas was a very interesting self-made man.
You asked whether I had written about our visit to St Augustine; here is a link. I didn’t take many pictures because the weather was lousy! We did enjoy it though.
What a beautiful home for a great man. Thank you so much for sharing these photos.
Looks like a really interesting place to visit - I think people are more easy to visualise and maybe understand when you can see some of their things.
Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
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