Program

NYS Historic

Subject

People, Site

Location

45 Parker St, Auburn, NY 13021, USA

Lat/Long

42.923557330495, -76.575790628042

Grant Recipient

City of Auburn

Cayuga County has a long and storied history of reformers who have called it home. None perhaps more known and respected than Harriet Tubman, who, after escaping enslavement in Maryland, conducting numerous trips on the underground railroad, serving as a spy and nurse during the Civil War, settled in Cayuga County along the Auburn-Fleming border.

While her heroic efforts on the Underground Railroad have been captured in print and film, a lesser-known chapter of Harriet Tubman’s legacy occurred towards the end of her life, when she sought to establish the Harriet Tubman Home for Aged and Indigent Negroes. It was Tubman’s vision to have a facility where the formerly enslaved would be taken care of in their later years, especially those with little means. She purchased additional acreage on the Auburn side of her property where the Home for the Aged was to be situated.

Ownership of the Home for the Aged eventually fell to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, who Tubman deeded the property to after she was unable to raise the funds to run the facility on her own. The Home for the Aged opened in 1908 and ran through the 1920s. Tubman herself would become a patient there.

Management of the facility was overseen by Frances Brown, who served as the Matron, or Superintendent, of the Home. Originally from Schenectady and born some time around 1850, Frances married Theodore Brown, a veteran of the Civil War, in 1864 shortly before the War concluded. Eventually she moved to Auburn and the house on Parker Street where this historical marker stands. In Auburn, Frances was charged with running the facility, which she did for many years before eventually returning to Schenectady.

When Frances Brown passed away in 1933, her obituary in the January 4^th edition of the Schenectady Gazette listed her community involvement.

“She was superintendent of the Harriet Tubman home for aged colored people, located in that city [Auburn] for a number of years. She was also an active member and officer of the Household of Ruth, and member of the Methodist Church.”

In a time when resources allocated to the elderly and formerly enslaved were scant—if any—the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged was an important development in eldercare, which Frances Brown played a crucial role in. As Frances was during her life, her former residence, too, remains closely linked to Harriet Tubman, sitting beside the former AME Zion Church which is—as of 2023—being rehabilitated by the National Park Service (NPS) with the plans of using the building to house both staff offices and exhibitions related to the legacy of Harriet Tubman.

Appropriately enough, the house of the woman who took care of Tubman in her final years will be visible from the new NPS site.

Links

• Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged
• Thompson Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church