Porter–Phelps–Huntington House

The Porter–Phelps–Huntington House is a historic house museum at 130 River Drive in Hadley, Massachusetts. It is open seasonally, from May to October. The house contains the collection of one extended family, with objects dating from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. It was occupied from its construction in 1752 until the 1940s, when a member of the eighth generation of the family in the house turned it into a museum.[2] Its collection is entirely derived from the family, and the extensive archives, including the original diary of Elizabeth Porter Phelps, are held at Amherst College. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Porter–Phelps–Huntington House
Porter–Phelps–Huntington House
LocationHadley, Massachusetts
Coordinates42°22′19″N 72°35′24″W
Area2 acres (0.81 ha)
Built1752 (1752)
ArchitectPorter, Moses; Phelps, Charles
Architectural styleColonial
NRHP reference No.73000303 [1]
Added to NRHPMarch 26, 1973

Description and history

The Porter–Phelps–Huntington House is located in a rural setting of northern Hadley, between River Drive (Massachusetts Route 47) and the Connecticut River. The main block of the house is a 2-1/2 story wood frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. To its rear is attached an older 1-1/2 story frame structure with a gabled roof. The front facade has symmetrically but unevenly placed windows flanking a center entrance.[3]

The house's construction history begins in 1752, when Moses Porter built what is now the ell. It was the first house to be built outside Hadley's stockaded town center. The house achieved its present form in the 1790s, when the larger front portion was built by Charles Phelps, a lawyer who had married Porter's daughter Elizabeth. The house next passed to Dan Huntington, who had married the Phelps daughter.[3] The family was very prominent locally, dating back to the founding of Hadley in 1659. Some members of the extended family achieved prominence regionally, nationally, and internationally. These include Benjamin Lincoln, a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution; Frederic Dan Huntington, first Episcopal bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York; and composer Roger Sessions.


Slavery at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Estate

The Porter-Phelps-Huntington estate serves as an excellent lens through which to view the history of slavery in Western Massachusetts, especially in the town of Hadley. Slavery has existed in Hadley since the town's founding, and the first four ministers of the town were all slave owners.[4] Samuel Porter, the great-grandfather of Moses Porter, bought the Porter family’s first slave in 1698 from a man named Joseph Smith.[5] Later on, when Moses Porter set up his estate in 1752, he owned two slaves: a boy named Zebulon Prutt and a girl named Peg.[6][7] Phelps bought Zebulon from a man named Jerusha Chauncey, a fellow resident of Hadley. Zebulon was fourteen years old at the time of sale, and Porter paid one hundred and fifty pounds to Chauncey for him.[8]

When Phelps died in 1756, both Zebulon and Peg were listed in the probate inventory of Porter’ possessions.[9] Ten years after his master’s death, Zebulon ran away, returning to the estate over a year later to find out that he had been sold to another man by Moses’ wife Elizabeth.[10]

Moses and Elizabeth’s daughter, also named Elizabeth, married a man Charles Phelps in 1770, and the two took over the estate from Moses and Elizabeth senior.[11] That same year, Phelps bought a slave named Cesar for "sixty six pounds, thirteen shillings, and four pence" from a man named William Williams in New Marlsborough, New York.[12] He and Elizabeth also had a slave named Phyllis, who served the family as Elizabeth’s person house slave.[13]

After the start of the Revolutionary War, Cesar to fight went in place of Charles Phelps. It was not uncommon for wealthy colonists to send slaves to fight in their place, often promising them freedom in exchange for their service.[14] It seems that Charles Phelps was one of those owners, and that he promised Cesar his freedom if he went to fight. In a letter back to Charles Phelps from Fort Ticonderoga, Cesar wrote:

“I take this opportunity to enform [sic] you that I don’t entend [sic] to live with Capt. Cranston if I can help it and I could be glad if you would send me a letter that I may git [sic] my wagers [sic] and I want to know how all the Talk Do at Home and I Desire you Prayers for me While in the Sarves [sic] and if you Determine to see me I want you Shud [sic] send me my Sock and Buckel [sic] So no more at Present but I Remain your Even Faithful Slave.

- Sezor Philips"[15]

Cesar never returned from the war, and it is unclear if he died or ran way after the war ended.[16] Peg had been sold in 1772 to a man named Stephen Fay from Bennington,Vermont, but was later repurchased in 1778 after Cesar’s disappearance.[17][18]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  3. "NRHP nomination for Porter-Phelps-Huntington House". National Archive. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  4. Romer, Robert (2009). Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Florence, MA: Levellers Press. p. 173. ISBN 9780981982007.
  5. Smith, Joseph and Rebekah (1698). Letter to Samuel Porter. Amherst College Archives.
  6. "Slavery and Servitude at Forty Acres". The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  7. Romer, Robert (2009). Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Florence, MA: Levellers Press. p. 175. ISBN 9780981982007.
  8. Chauncey, Jerusha (1745). Letter to Moses Porter. Amherst College Archives.
  9. An Inventory of the Estate of Capt Moses Porter Late of Hadley. Report. March 8, 1756. Hadley, MA. Amherst College Archives.
  10. Romer, Robert (2009). Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Florence, MA: Levellers Press. p. 176. ISBN 9780981982007.
  11. "Six Generations". The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  12. Williams, William (1770). Letter to Charles Phelps. Amherst College Archives.
  13. "Slavery and Servitude at Forty Acres". The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  14. "Fighting... Maybe for Freedom, but probably not". www.history.org. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  15. Phelps, Cesar (September 30, 1776). Letter to Charles Phelps. Amherst College Archives.
  16. Romer, Robert (2009). Slavery in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts. Florence, MA: Levellers Press. p. 177. ISBN 9780981982007.
  17. "Slavery and Servitude at Forty Acres". The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  18. Fay, Stephen (March, 1778). Letter to Charles Phelps. Amherst College Archives.
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