What is today known as the Prudence Crandall House, in Canterbury, was originally built around 1805 for Luther Paine by the architect, Thomas Gibbs. The house, also known as the Elisha Payne House, was built in the “Canterbury type” of the Federal style, so named because there are several similar houses in town. Distinctive features of the Canterbury Style include having a gable atop a hipped roof with twin chimneys and a complex two-and-a-half story entrance composition with a triangular pediment above a Gothic-influenced Palladian window above an elaborate doorway. In 1831, the house became a school for girls, run by Prudence Crandall of Rhode Island, who had been invited by Canterbury residents to head the school. When Crandall accepted Sarah Harris, the daughter of a free African American farmer, to the school, many townspeople objected and began to remove their daughters from the school. In response, Crandall decided attract students from free black communities in New England to her school, who could be trained as teachers. In 1833, the state passed a “Black Law” making it illegal for the school to operate. Crandall was arrested, spent a night in jail, and faced various charges until her case was dismissed in 1834. A dissatisfied mob then attacked the school, which was forced to close. Crandall soon married and left Connecticut. The “Black Law” was repealed in 1838 and years later, in 1886 the Connecticut legislature honored Crandall with an annual pension. She was designated the official state heroine of Connecticut in 1995 and her former house and school is now the Prudence Crandall Museum, operated by the state.
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