There are more than 400 national parks, several of which are located in upstate New York, including Seneca Falls, considered by many as the birthplace of the women\u2019s rights movement.<\/p>\n
But supporters of the Women\u2019s Rights National Historical Park are concerned about a maintenance backlog. The national park serves 27,000 visitors every year.<\/p>\n
“I’m very anxious about the future of the park,” said Miranda Johnson-Haddad, board president, Friends of Women\u2019s Rights National Historical Park.<\/p>\n
The Women\u2019s Rights National Historical Park has six sites dating back to the 1800s. Some are the homes of suffragists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the M’Clintocks.<\/p>\n
“It was amazing that it started as a tea here in this house and grew into this movement that would eventually culminate in the 19th Amendment in the 20th century,\u201d said Ahna Wilson, superintendent of the park.<\/p>\n
The park has $12 million in deferred maintenance. Of that, $9.2 million is for building repairs.<\/p>\n
“All historic properties need yearly maintenance. They need upgrades. Just to keep up with the preservation of these really important buildings. And so the park service has a backlog of these maintenance costs,” said Wilson.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the only property in the parks system with postponed maintenance costs. The historic park was listed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of 2026\u2019s 11 most endangered sites.<\/p>\n
“I feel we are quite endangered at this point,” said Johnson-Haddad.<\/p>\n
One of the desired repairs is to the park’s water wall, which Johnson-Haddad said would cost $650,000.<\/p>\n
“Maybe next year, without the work being done on it, they’ll be crossing their fingers and holding their breath, and it won’t turn on,” said Johnson-Haddad.<\/p>\n
“The good part is that we are in the forever business. We are tasked for doing this into perpetuity. And so, what we aren’t able to do this year, we are able to gather back the next year and continue to push forward projects,” said Wilson.<\/p>\n
“However, we just have some of these regular, semiannual or every few years needs that are cyclic in nature. And so, again, roofs, painting, foundation work,” said Wilson.<\/p>\n
A statement from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand\u2019s office said in part, “It is more important than ever to invest in and preserve sites like these so that we can honor the brave individuals who fought for equality and ensure their legacy lives on for generations to come.”<\/p>\n
Miranda said that since being placed on this endangered list, they have received some small donations from the public to improve the park.<\/p>\n
According to the National Park Service, the Women\u2019s Rights National Historical Park has a $3.8 million impact on the economy.<\/p>\n
In a statement to Spectrum News 1, Sen. Chuck Schumer said, “I\u2019ll continue working closely with site leadership to secure the resources needed to address the park\u2019s deferred maintenance needs and protect this important piece of American history.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are more than 400 national parks, several of which are located in upstate New York, including Seneca…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[257,2025,28813,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,200],"class_list":["post-340739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-central-ny","tag-community-news","tag-krystal-cole","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}