Form NO. io-3oo'<Rev. 10-74) THEME 8 - CONTEMPLATIVE SOCIETY / 8a - Literature, Drama, and Music• UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORNATIONAL PARK SERVICENATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY » NOMINATION FORM
SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS___________._TYPE_ALL ENTRIES - COMPLEJJ^PyCABL^SECJJOjSIS______NAMEHISTORIC

JFrgnces Ellen Watkins Harp6I_HoPW_________________ __ __________
AND/OR COMMONFrances Ellen Watkins Haroer HouseI LOCATIONSTREET & NUMBER

1006 Bainbridge Street

NOT FOR PUBLICATIONCONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

CITY, TOWN

_ PMIade Iphia

First, VICINITY OF

Pennsylvania

HCLASSIFICATIONCATEGORY42

OWNERSHIPCODE

COUNTY

CODE

STATE

101

^PJiMadelphia

PRESENT USE

STATUS__DISTRICT___PU8LIC-^OCCUPIED__AGRI CULTURE

X-BUILDING(S)^PRIVATE—UNOCCUPIED_ COMMERCIAL—PARK—.STRUCTURE_-BOTH_WORK IN PROGRESS_ EDUCATIONAL

X.PRIVATE RESIDENCEACCESSIBLE

PUBLIC ACQUISITION_ SITE—OBJECT—MUSEUM_ ENTERTAINMENT—RELIGIOUS__IN PROCESSX-YES: RESTRICTED—GOVERNMENT--SCIENTIFIC_ BEING CONSIDERED_ YES. UNRESTRICTED—INDUSTRIAL-..TRANSPORTATION_ NO—MILITARY—OTHER.

OWNER OF PROPERTY
NAME

Edward H. Gornish and Company

STREET & NUMBER

CITY. TOWN

620 South Broadway

Philadelphia

STATE

Pennsylvania

VICINITY OF[LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION
COURTHOUSE,REGISTRY OF DEEDS.ETC.

Reg |stry of Deeds, City Ha 11"STREET & NUMBER

Broad & Market Streets
STATE

CITY, TOWN

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS
TITLE

Nlone Known
DATE-FEDERALDEPOSITORY FORSURVEY RECORDS
CITY. TOWN—STATE—COUNTY—LOCALDESCRIPTIONCONDITIONCHECK ONECHECK ONEX

—EXCELLENT—DETERIORATED_UNALTERED—ORIGINAL SITE

_GOOD

_RUINS.^ALTERED—MOVED

X_FAIR_UNEXPOSEDDATE______DESCRIBETHE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Located on the northeast corner of Bainbridge and South Adler Streets, this structure isa three story corner rowhouse with masonry exterior. The first floor appears to have been
converted from a previous commercial use as a store back to a residential facade.
Where a glass front use to exist, the area has been enclosed in brick and two new sash
windows of aluminium material have been added. The two windows and door on this arecharacterized by a continuous line of three rows of dentilotion separating this level fromthe second. The brick used on this first floor level is also yellow but of a more recent
type than that used on upper floors. A permit on file in the Tax Assessor's office, dated
1968 and requesting approval of the change of facade is further evidence of the structure's
prior function.
The second and third floors are of an older yellow brick material. Each floor is two sash
windows wide. The cornice line of the flat roof is of an indistinguishable type with a brickchimney that seems to sevice both 1006 and 1008 Bainbridge. While the front part of thechimney is stucco the sides and rear are of the brick material that is on the second and third
floors. This brick apparently was the original material.
The west side of the structure has been covered over with stucco. The only distinguishingfeatures of this side are a door and small window on the first floor level and small sash windows
on the second and third floors. A small window at the top indicates an attic area.
Attached to the rear of the structure is an addition that is partially of yellow brick andshingle material. Its* rather dilapidated condition and appearance indicates a storage andservice ftinction. The close proximity of the side and rear structures prevent a more detailed
investigation of the structure.
It is obvious that this structure has undergone numerous alterations to the point that thehouse has no definable architectural style. It, along with the other houses in the section
have all been severely altered since their original construction before the turn of the century.
A system of building permits was not installed until 1890 so a definite date of the constructionof the building cannot be determined. However, use of platt maps and simple title searchingindicate that the structure was the one Frances Ellen Watkins occupied from 1870 until her
death in 1911.

a SIGNIFICANCE
AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE -- CHECK AND JUSTIFY BELOWPERIOD—PREHISTORIC_ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC—COMMUNITY PLANNING—LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE— 1400-1499_ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC—CONSERVATION—LAW—SCIENCE— 1500-1599_AGRICULTURE—ECONOMICS

X_LITERATURE—SCULPTURE
X_SOCIAL/HUMANITARIAN—RELIGION— 1600-1699_ARCHITECTURE—EDUCATION_MILITARY— 1700-1799_ART—ENGINEERING—MUSIC—THEATER

Xj 800-1899—COMMERCE—EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT—PHILOSOPHY

X_19QO-—COMMUNICATIONS—INDUSTRY—POLITICS/GOVERNMENT—TRANSPORTATIONMOTHER (SPECIFY)—INVENTIONSPECIFIC DATES

Afro-American History
Not Known

Residency (1870-

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The life of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spanned eighty-six eventful years wherein she
achieved acclaim as a reformer as well as a literary figure among Afro-Americans. Harper's
achievements included her activities as a reformer in the anti-slavery movement, in thewomen's rights movement, in the temperance movement, and in the civil rights movement of
the post Civil War years. In addition, her poetry and essays are significant because she usedthem as vehicles to comment upon the life and times of her people.
BIOGRAPHYFrances Ellen Watkins was born of free blacks in Baltimore, Maryland in 1825. She wasorphaned early in life and raised by an aunt and an uncle, abolitionist William Watkins, an
A.M.E. minister who wrote for The Liberator and operated a religious academy in Baltimore.
Free blacks were limited in mobility and lived close to the realities of slavery, a theme
which later characterized much of Harper's poetry. As a result, she learned early that
"freedom was an arbitrary condition." Although Frances was an educated young woman, sheshared the realities of most Afro-American women in the nineteenth century. Her economic
status was limited to service oriented jobs. She began her first job at the age of fourteen in
the home of a white Baltimore family where she worked as a seamstress and nursemaid. Whilein her teen years, she wrote her first small book of verse, "Forest Leaves," which reflected
her preoccupation with religion and her ability to transcend the daily routine of domestic
work.
Frances left Baltimore at age twenty-six for "free soil," in Columbus, Ohio where shetaught domestic science at Union Seminary. Shortly after her departure Maryland enacted
a law forbidding free blacks living in the North to immigrate into that state. The penalty
was imprisonment and sale into slavery. Homesick and concerned for her friends and family,
Frances was forced to live in exile, and it was during these times that she began to realizethat teaching was not her calling. She decided to dedicate her efforts to the anti-slavery
crusade.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES^
HpMAJOR
Sources:
The Anglo-African Magazine, Vol.! . New York:Thomas Hamilton, 1859; reprint edition
New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1968.
Anthony , Susan B., and Haroer, Ida Husted,eds. History of Woman Sufferage, 1883 -1900.
New York: Susan B.Anthony ,1902; reprint edition. New York: Arno Press, 1V6V.

GEOGRAPHICAL DATAACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY LeSS than One
UTM REFERENCES

All, 81 1418,613,8,0
ZONE

EASTING
11,1.,

14,412,110,8,0 I
NORTHING

1,1,1,,

LI, 1 _, ._,_ I LJ
EASTING-•NORTHING°LJ ! 1 i LL_I_1 I i I . L_L±,
8 ___|ZONE

lit!

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION

The Frances Ellen Watkins Harper House at 1006 Bainbridge is located on the northwest
corner of Bainbridge and South Adler Street. It is bounded on the west by a rowhouse,
1008 Bainbridge Street, on the south by the rear of a rowhouse 705 South Warnock Street;on the east by South Adler Street; and on the north by Bainbridge Street.
LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE
STATE

CODE

COUNTY

CODE

STATE

CODE

COUNTYCODE

FORM PREPARED BY
NAME/TITLE

Lynne Gomez-Graves, Historical Projects Director
ORGANIZATION

DATE

Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation
STREETS NUMBER

TELEPHONE

1420 N Street, Northwest(202) 4A2-2/31 9

CITY OR TOWN

STATEWashington 'D. C.

0STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATIONTHE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS:
NATIONAL__

STATE___

LOCAL___As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I
hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to thecriteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.
FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE SIGNATURE

DATE

TITLE

DATE
, OFFMl! Of ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORIC PRESERVATIONDATEKEEPER OFTHE NAttONAt REGISTERForm No. 10-30Cfa(Rev. 1O-74)

UNITED STALLS DbPAR I ML N ! Ol THL INILRIORFOR NFS USe ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM

CO NT! MUATIQ^ SHEETFrances Ellen Watkins
rjgrper Home

ITEM NUMBER

DATE ENTE*ED

8____PAGE Jwo________________

Frances joined her cousin, William Watkins, Jr. and the two set-out for New England
where they both launched careers as anti-slavery lecturers. In I860, while on tour inCincinnati, Ohio, Frances met and married Fenton Harper. The couple settled upon asmall farm near Columbus and had one child, Mary. Frances continued her literary workwhen she found time; however, the death of Fenton Harper, in May, 1864 shortened herexperience with domestic life and shortly thereafter she returned to the lecture circuit.
An analysis of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the activist and reformer, begins withher years as Frances Ellen Watkins, the abolitionist. For eight years prior to her marriage,
Frances lectured, wrote essays and poems, and contributed money to the anti-slavery cause.
She began her professional career as an abolitionist lecturer in 1854 when she was hiredby the Maine Anti-Slavery Society to lecture in New England and lower Canada. The
same year, she published her first major book of essays and poetry, Poems on Miscellaneous
Subjects, to which abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote the introduction. The successof the book can be measured by the fact that it was reprinted several times between 1854
and 1871 when it entered the twentieth edition. Her writings contained not only verseon the plight of the slave and on religious life, but commentary on the quality of life ofher people. In the essay, "The Colored People of America," Frances focused not only
upon the struggle to survive among black women, but upon their aspirations and values.
She wrote: "I See women, whose lot is unremitted labor, saving a pittance from theirscanty wages to defray the expenses of learning to read.
Frances knew of what she spoke
because she had lived this reality while a youth in Baltimore. Her experiences from 1856
through 1859 reinforced her assessment of the poor quality of black life in America as she
lectured in cities and towns throughout the North.
Within this brief period, she established a national reputation as a race spokeswoman.
Her poems and essays could be found in the pages of black journals. Thomas Hamilton,
publisher of the Anglo-African Magazine, as well as the publisher of the Weekly AngloAfrican , listed her among the prominent Afro-Americans in the United States in 1859.
During that year, Frances contributed an essay , a poem and a short story to the journal.
Her essay, "Our Greatest Want," is indicative of her ideology as a race spokesperson
during this period. She disagreed with the view that riches and intelligence were thegreatest needs of the race and claimed, rather, that, "We need more unselfishness,earnestness and integrity. Our greatest need is not gold or silver, talent or genius, buttrue men and true women."2

Form No. 10-300a(Rev. 10-74)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENTS THE IMhRIORFORNPSUSEQNtY

NATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM
Frances Ellen Watkins_CO^TiljlUAT10N JSHEETHarper Home

ITEM NUMBER

DATE ENTERED

g

PAGE

The actions as well as the words of Frances Watkins demonstrate her sincere dedication to
the cause of freedom for black people. She sympathized with John Brown and his Harper's
Ferry insurrectionists and her concern was so great that she spent two weeks with Mrs. Brown
as she awaited the execution of her husband. At the same time, she also sent provisions toBrown's comrades wo awaited their fates in prison. After the executions, Frances eulogized
the insurrectionists in her lectures.
After the Civil War, Frances Harper embarked upon a tour of the South, determined to see
the conditions of the freedmen first hand and bring them encouragement. During this period of
the late 1860s and the 1870s she became involved in the struggle of women's rights as well as
the struggle for civil rights and the advancement of her race.
Harper travelled in most of the southern states. According to William Still, she foundSouth Carolina the most interesting and the friendliest state. She was there in 1867, a period
when blacks were gaining in political power. While travelling she witnessed the poverty anddeprivations of the freedmen whom she travelled among in South Carolina and in the South asa whole. She concluded that the state contained the greatest avenue of any state in the nation
for black development and progress. Yet she did not discount the abuses and atrocities thatshe saw being perpetrated against blacks. In December, 1870 while in Alabama she heardof an attack upon a black woman by two white men who forcibly entered her cabin and beather. Her outrage and concern motivated her to give free private lectures to freedwomenwhom she felt were being continually abused and kept in a state of ignorance. In a letterto William Still she wrote from Greenville, Georgia, "Now is the time for our woman tobegin to try to left-up their heads and plant roots of progress under the hearthstone."^Mrs. Harper's concern for the plight of the men and the women of the race was evident
not only in her personal interactions with them, but in her political activities during the post
Civil War years. During the late 1860s, she attended meetings of the American Equal Suffrage
Association in Washington and in New York City. She joined former abolitionists Frederick
Douglass, Charles Remond, Sojourner Truth, George T. Downing, and Harriet and Robert
Purvis, all of whom were members of the association. The organization was a biracial group
committed to the struggle for the attainment of universal suffrage.
Harper's views about suffrage were similar to those of Frederick Douglass, especially inregard to the controversy over the Fifteenth Amendment. White female suffragists, for themost part, disapproved of the amendment because it contained the word "male," restrictingForm No. 10-300a(Rev. 10-74)

UNITED STAIhS DLPARTMI:N i Ol THL INlhRIOR

FOR NFS USE ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM
Frances Ellen Watkins
Home _ HEM NUMBER

DATE ENTERED

8

PAGE

Four

the franchise to that sex. Most black suffragists realized that the women's suffrage cause was
opposed by most Americans during the period, and consequently argued for the separation of
woman's suffrage from "Negro suffrage." Once the black man was enfranchised, these proponents
believed, the struggle for women's suffrage could be resumed with the added strength of theblack male vote. This controversy caused a rift between the black male and female suffragists.
Some white female suffragists led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton broke fromthe Equal Rights Association to form the National Woman's Suffrage Association in 1869. Frances
Harper joined the men and women who supported the Fifteenth Amendment to form the American
Woman Suffrage Association.
Frances Harper was so pleased with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment that she wrote
a poem titled after it. Her stirring lines expressed her optimism for the future of the race.
The last two stanzas of the poem in particular exemplify this hopefulness:
With freedom's chrism upon thy head,
Her precious ensign in thy hand,
Go place thy once despised name
Amid the noblest of the land. 4
Within a few years after the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, the intensificationof the struggle for political control of the South between the Radical Republicans and theConservative Democrats, resulted in numerous acts of violence. As a consequence, thenewly freed black men and women were usually caught in the middle. Harper expressed
her fear that the black male would lose his vote in the South. She also reinforced herbelief in the need for women's suffrage because of the violence and continuous degradationof black woman of the South . She attended meetings of the American Woman Suffrage
Association during the 1870s and the 1880s and participated in their meeting held at
Cooper Institute in New York City where she gave the closing speech. It stated herbelief "that as much as white women need the ballot, colored women need it more."
She also emphasized that although black women were no longer sold as slaves, theircivil rights were being violated by "degraded men." Harper pleaded for equal rights
and equal education for the women of her race.
The temperance issue was one in which Mrs. Harper was particularly interested. She
associated alcoholism with the demise of the balck family and the decline of black politicalinfluence in the South. For the most part, she blamed black men for allowing themselves
to be the pawns of white politicians who often bought their votes with liquor. On the otherForm No. 10-300a(Rev. 1C5-74)

UNITED STATLS DhPARTMLNTOh 1 ML IN IhRIOR

FOR NFS USE ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM
Frances Ellen Watkins._'IEM NUMBER

DATE ENTERED

8

PAGE Fivehand, she praised the black women in the South for their continuous hard work toward
political and educational goals.
In 1885, Frances Harper was a director of the Women Congress and an outspoken foeof stimulants and narcotics. Writing from Philadelphia, she announced her desire to workwith women of the race in an attempt to teach them about the eviis of intemperance. She
joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and became the Pennsylvania
State Superintendent for Work Among the Colored People. By 1888, she had been appointed
the first National Superintendent of Work Among Colored People of the North.
Frances Harper did not allow her organizational activities to prevent her from using
her literary talents to comment upon the life arid times of her people during the latenineteenth century. In a book of her essays and poems, Sketches of Southern Life, she
spoke through a fictional character, Aunt Chloe, whose simple wisdom warned blacks
against political corruption. She said:
And this buying up each otherIs something worse than mean,
Though I thinks a heap of voting,
I go for voting clean.
Two poems in her book of verse, Atlanta Offering, published in 1895, expressed herviews on woman's rights and temperance respectively. She did not earn a national reputation
as an outstanding black poet, but she did become the first Afro-American woman to publish
a novel. Her work, lola LeRoy or Shadows Uplifted, was published in 1892. In this bookshe sought to inspire black youth to work to uplift the race as well as to educate white
Americans about her people . Harper considered her novel part of her "mission" to the race.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper spent the first decade of the twentieth century in her
Philadelphia home at 1006 Bainbridge where she lived from 1870. Her last poem was
published in 1909 and she died after a brief illness in 1911 .
W. E. B. DuBois commented upon her life in an editorial of the Crisis issue of April,
1911:
She was associated with all the great leadersof the abolitionist cause and has lectured tohundreds of audiences throughout the land .
It is, however, for her attempts to forward
literature among colored people that Frances
Harper deserves most to be remembered.

Form No. 10-300a(Rev. 10-74)

UNITED STATLiSDLPARl Ml NTO1 < THLIN IhRlOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICEFOR NFS USE ONLYRECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY - NOMINATION FORMDATE ENTEREDFrances Ellen Watkins
Hqrer Home

ITEM NUMBER

Q

PAGE

$ ;x

Unfortunately, Americans have been late in acknowledging the loss of Frances Harper.
Not until 1922, eleven years after her death, did the convention at the World's WCTU,
held in Philadelphia, accord a single honor to her memory. Her name was placed on the
Red Letter Calendar along with the names of WCTU leaders Frances Willard and the Lady
Henry Somerset.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was one of the most outstanding women of the nineteenth
century contributing to America's literature and actively fighting to abolish the country'ssocial problems. Her overall concern for mankind materialized into her involvement in theabolitionist movement, the women's suffrage movement, the temperance movement, and theeducation and protection of the newly freed black men and women of the South . Her deep
concern for people had to find other means of expression outside of physical involvement andso she wrote numerous pieces of poetry and one novel all with a social perspective. Frances
Ellen Watkins Harper was a major social humanitarian and writer of American history andculture.

Form No. 10-300a(Rev. 10-74)

UNIThDSTATLSDhPARTMl NTOt THL IMLRIORFOR NFS USE ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM

CONTINUATJON SHEETFrances Ellen Watkins
Harper Home

ITEM NUMBER

DATE ENTERED

3

PAGE

Qne

(Reference Notes)

1 . Frances E. W. Harper, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (Philadelphia: Merrihew
and Thompson, Printers, 1857), pp. 45-47.
2. The Anglo-African Magazine, Vol. 1 (New York, 1859), p. 160.
3. William Still, The Underground Railroad; A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives,
Letters, Etc (New York: Arno Press, 1968), p.76B

4. Ibid,p. 769.

Form No. 10-300a(Rev. 10-74)

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT Ol- THE IN IERIORFOR NFS USe ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICERECEIVEDNATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORMDATE ENTE*ED

Frances Ellen Watkins
COWT2 NU ATION SHEETHarper________ITEM NUMBER 9______PAGE Two___________________

Harper, F.E.W.."A Factor in Human Progress, "A.M.E. Church Review 2(1885): 14-18.
_______. "An Address Delivered at the Centennial Anniversary of the Pennsylvania Society
for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery." Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence. Editedby Alice Moore Dunbar. New York: The Bookery Publishing Company, 1914; reprint
edition New York: The Basic Afro-American Reprint Library, 1970.
_______. Atlanta Offering; Poems. Philadelphia: Frances E.W. Harper, 18>95.
_______. "The Democratic Return to Power." A.M.E. Church Review 1(1884); 222-225.
_______. lola Eeroy, or Shadows Uplifted. Philadelphia: Frances E.W. Harper, 1892.
_______."National Woman's Christian Temperance Union." A.M.E.Church Review 5———————(January, 1889) :242-245.
———————————————_______.j 8___Sketches of Southern Eife. Philadelphia; Ferguson Brothers and Company, Printers,_______. "The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Colored Woman. " A.M.E.

—————church Review.4(1888); 313-316.
Stant, Elizabeth Cady^ Anthony, Susan B.; and Gage, Matilda J., eds. History of Woman
Sufferage, 1861-1876. New York: Fowler and Wells, 1882; reprint edition New York:Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969.
Watkins, Frances Ellen. Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects. Philadelphia: Merrihew and Thompson,
Printers, 1857; reprint edition Philadelphia: Historic Publications, 1969.
Secondary Sources:
Brown, Hallie Q. editor. Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction. Xenia, Ohio;
The Aldine Publishing Company, 1926.
Editorial. Crisis 2(April, 1911); 21-22.
Still, William. The Underground Railroad; A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters,Etc.
Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, 1872; reprint edition. New York: Arno Press, 1968.

The Weekly Anglo-African, 30 July 1859.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harpe
U.S.G.S. 7*5' series map
Philadelphia, Penn. Quadrangl
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