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Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall

Abolitionism in the United StatesFederal architecture in PennsylvaniaHistory of Montgomery County, PennsylvaniaHouses completed in 1795Houses completed in 1856
Houses in Montgomery County, PennsylvaniaHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in PennsylvaniaHouses on the Underground RailroadIndividually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in PennsylvaniaNational Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, PennsylvaniaTourist attractions in Montgomery County, PennsylvaniaUnderground Railroad in Pennsylvania
Hovenden House from SW 2016
Hovenden House from SW 2016

Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall is a group of historic buildings in Plymouth Meeting, Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In the decades prior to the American Civil War, the property served as an important station on the Underground Railroad. Abolition Hall was built to be a meeting place for abolitionists, and later was the studio of artist Thomas Hovenden. The house is located at the northeast corner of Germantown and Butler Pikes, diagonally opposite the Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse. Northeast of the house is the stone barn, and attached to the barn's northeast corner is the 2-story carriage house known as Abolition Hall. The three buildings are part of a 10.45-acre farm, and are contributing properties in the Plymouth Meeting Historic District.The property is threatened by a 2016 proposal to reroute Butler Pike between the Hovenden House and its barn. Preservation Pennsylvania added the property to its 2017 Pennsylvania At Risk list. However, in 2021, it was announced that the township and the Whitemarsh Art Center would buy the property for $3.95 million preserving it for use by the center.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall
Butler Pike,

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.102777777778 ° E -75.278055555556 °
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Address

Butler Pike 4005
19462
Pennsylvania, United States
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Hovenden House from SW 2016
Hovenden House from SW 2016
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Plymouth Meeting Historic District
Plymouth Meeting Historic District

Plymouth Meeting Historic District is a national historic district that straddles Plymouth and Whitemarsh Townships in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. The adjacent Cold Point Historic District is north of it. The district encompasses 200 acres (81 ha) and includes 56 contributing buildings in the historic core of Plymouth Meeting. Among these are the separately-listed Plymouth Friends Meetinghouse (1708); Hinterleiter House (c.1714); Livezey House and Store (c.1740–1788); Hovenden House, Barn and Abolition Hall (c.1795, 1856); and Plymouth Meeting Country Store and Post Office (c.1827).The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Plymouth Meeting House is the name of a village situated at the intersection of the Plymouth and Perkiomen turnpikes, on the township line. On this [Plymouth] side is the meeting house, school house and four houses; and in Whitemarsh two stores, a blacksmith and wheelwright shop, post office and twenty-four houses. The houses in this village are chiefly situated along the Perkiomen or Reading pike, nearly adjoining one another, and being of stone, neatly white washed, with shady yards in front, present to the stranger an agreeable appearance. In the basement of the Library building the Methodists hold worship. This is an ancient settlement, whose history dates back nearly to the arrival of William Penn, and is marked as a village on Lewis Evans' map of 1749. The post office was established here before 1827. In 1832 there were but ten houses here. — History of Montgomery County (1858).

Cold Point Historic District
Cold Point Historic District

Cold Point Historic District is a national historic district located in Plymouth Township and Whitemarsh Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is an eastward extension of the Plymouth Meeting Historic District. It encompasses 62 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site dated from 1745 to 1878 in the Village of Cold Point. It includes predominantly 2+1⁄2-story, stuccoed rubble stone structures dated to the early- to mid-19th century. A few reflect the Greek Revival and Gothic Revival styles. Notable buildings include the separately listed Alan West Corson Homestead, Cold Point Baptist Church and burial ground, and Cold Point School.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. On the line adjoining Plymouth and Whitemarsh townships is an elevation known as Cold Point, where there is a scattered hamlet, containing on the Whitemarsh side more than a dozen houses. The Cold Point Baptist Church, located at this place, was first known as the Plymouth Church, and the locality became a preaching-place about 1842, when the Rev. Robert Young, then pastor of the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church, began service in the school-house, which then stood opposite the present church. The corner-stone of the old stone church edifice was laid in the summer of 1845, and after completion was in use until 1867. The corner-stone of the present stone house, sixty by forty feet, was laid in August of that year and completed and dedicated in 1868 and is still used. It stands a short distance west of the old church.The membership is about one hundred and fifty. The grounds occupy about two and a half acres and are kept in neat condition. We find on the tombstones the names of Freas, Rodebaugh, Lysinger, Fight, Phipps, Hellings, Williams, White, Sands, Bisbing, Hallet, Rex, Coulson, Moore, Robinson, Fisher, Nagle, Schlater, Yetter, Butler, Kirk, Radcliff, Getman, Wood, Jones, Childs, Wimmer, Roberts, Heller, Gilbert and Dewees. From these grounds a fine view is obtained of the surrounding country, particularly towards the north and west, embracing the greater portion of Plymouth township. Near this is the residence of the late Alan W. Corson, well known as a teacher, surveyor, nurseryman and botanist, who died June 21, 1882, aged ninety-five years. — History of Montgomery County (1884).