My wife and daughter had planned a trip for us to the Finger Lakes region of New York on September 4. Because I was busy, I didn’t even know exactly where we were heading.
It turns out we were going to Seneca Falls. We had been in the village a decade earlier, on the return leg of our 2016 vacation. But when we went to the Visitor Center of the Women’s Rights National Historic Park, it was closed. We did see the wall with the Declaration of Sentiments.
On this return visit, we did get to the visitor center, which was quite interesting. One of the NPS staff, Anha Wilson, led us to the Wesleyan Chapel, the site of the Women’s Rights Convention on July 19-20, 1848, where the Declaration was codified.
Our guide explained how Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright, and Jane Hunt came to Seneca Falls, where none of them grew up, to create the document.
We did not get to the other parts of the National Park, though I did subsequently take a virtual tour. Interestingly, shortly after we returned home, we saw a news story about how the park has experienced $12 million in “deferred maintenance.”
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has dubbed the Women’s Rights National Historical Park one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2026. One may support the America the Beautiful Act (S.1547). “This bill would provide up to $16 billion of dedicated funding over 8 years to tackle the deferred maintenance backlog of the National Park Service and other federal agencies.”
Dinner
We headed to our hotel room. On the way, we saw remnants of tornadoes from two days earlier, with large branches and even whole trees in yards and curbs. There were at least a half dozen utility trucks in the hotel parking lot, suggesting a lot of disruption to be rectified.
We went to dinner at Wolffy’s Grill and Marina. It was quite decent place to eat. But the view of Cayuga Lake was EXTRAORDINARY.
