This year we commemorate 125 years of history and human rights and the role and importance of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site then and now.
We hope you will join us on Saturday, July 17, 2021 to celebrate this milestone and to also honor our Spirit of John Brown Freedom awardees—Nell Irvin Painter, visual artist and historian; Ellen Rocco, former station manager and founding mother of North Country Public Radio; and Soul Fire Farm, a BIPOC-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system.
Join us for music, camaraderie, memory and more. We’ll be joined by the Plattsburgh Gospel Choir, Cordell Reeves of NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and our 2020 Spirit of John Brown Freedom Awardees.
Come early and join Sandra Weber as she interprets Kate Field at 2:00 and 2:30 PM. Visit the newly installed and updated Memorial Field for Black Lives and our Dreaming of Timbuctoo Exhibit.
Commemoration event begins at 3:00 PM under the tent.
The main event is free and is followed by a ticketed reception at the Olympic Jumping Complex- Intervales Lodge from 5:30-7:30 PM. Reception tickets can be purchased by Clicking Here!
On March 27, 1896, the State of New York acquired the Adirondack home of abolitionists John and Mary Brown on the condition that it be used “for the purpose of a public park or reservation forever.” It was a gift from prominent journalist Kate Field and nineteen friends she had persuaded to contribute $100 each to purchase the farm when the home, gravesite and surrounding fields and woodlands were about to go up for sale. Field wanted John Brown’s home “to be held as sacred ground, as proof that even in the nineteenth century there is such a thing as poetic justice.”
Hundreds attended the official dedication on July 21, 1896, and In the decades before and the 125 years since, the State of New York and scores of individuals and organizations have answered the call to protect, preserve and interpret the history and meaning of this sacred site and human rights destination to serve the public and advance the cause for which Brown and fellow Harper’s Ferry Raiders, Black men and White, gave their lives in 1859.