Home of Elizabeth Widgery Thomas

(site of)

53 India Street

Elizabeth Widgery Thomas and her husband, Elias’s home was considered a “safe house” for fugitive sales as they participated in the Portland Anti-Slavery Society. Mrs. Thomas was active in women’s rights and hosted the likes of Lucy Stone, the first woman in the U.S. to graduate from college (Oberlin in Ohio) and suffragette, Susan B. Anthony. The Widgery Thomas house was burned down in the Great Fire of 1866.

The Thomas home was situated where there is now a parking lot for the old North School at 248-264 Congress Street, on the corner of India Street. The school, from 1867 to 1979, served 1,000 children at once during its peak. It is now North School Congregate Housing.

• Portland Freedom Trail