By Hoag Levins ...| ...Oct 14, 2001
LAWNSIDE, N.J. -- On an afternoon so brilliant with sunlight that some of the arriving guests suggested God Himself was smiling down, the Peter Mott House was officially dedicated yesterday as an Underground Railroad historic site and museum.
Touched by the first rays of sunshine shortly after dawn, the Peter Mott House awaits the opening-day crowd on Oct. 13.
The ceremony, which officially opened the house as a public museum, capped an effort that began in 1989 to save the collapsing wooden structure from demolition and restore it as a memorial to this community's historic involvement in the nineteenth-century fight against slavery.
In 1994 the site was officially recognized and added to both the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
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The Peter Mott House is the oldest known house in Lawnside. Built circa 1845, the house was residence to Peter Mott, an African-American preacher who was the first Sunday school superintendent at Mount Pisgah African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lawnside, and his wife, Eliza.
No birth certificates survive, but census records indicate that Mott was born around 1810. The 1850 Census lists Mott, 40, as a black male laborer owning real estate valued at $600. His wife, Elizabeth Ann Mott, was listed as 42. Gloucester County marriage records show that he married Eliza Thomas on Nov. 2, 1833.
Mott was a free Black man and an agent of the Underground Railroad. The size of his house in what was then called Snow Hill or Free Haven and its method of construction — two stories — reflect Mott's status as a respected member of the community.
Land transactions for May 30, 1844, record Mott's purchase of the property for his home from Thomas Stephenson for $100. The 1870 Census valued Mott's real estate at $1,000 and his personal estate at $250.
The Borough of Lawnside, located eight miles north of Camden, is the only historically African-American incorporated municipality in the northern United States. It dates to Colonial times as a settlement of people of color.
Through the abolition of slavery in New Jersey, the perils of the Underground Railroad, the ravages of the Civil War and the grinding poverty of the Depression era, Lawnside has emerged as a viable, modern community.
The Lawnside Historical Society has fought to preserve, acquire and maintain the Peter Mott House. In February 1992, the Society was handed the deed to the property. The house was restored as a museum and opened to the public in October 2001. The property is now listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places.
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Hours:
Noon to 3 p.m. Saturdays.
Weekdays appointment only.
Location:
26 Kings Court,
Off Moore Avenue,
Lawnside, N.J. 08045
Donation:
$5 for adults; $2 for students.
Questions:
(856) 546-8850
Tours@PeterMottHouse.org