A distinctive landmark property that resides on the State and National Registers of Historic Places
Notable Gates Hall Speakers
Gates Hall didn’t originally have a stage as it does today, but it had galleries on each side and in the back of the building. It has hosted many lectures and meetings by local residents and others from afar on social, moral and religious issues of the day and the evils of alcohol and slavery. Some of the topics addressed by notable speakers include:
Spiritualism
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1867 - J. W. Seaver
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1869 - Samuel C. Cuyler of Pultneyville
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1869 - G. W. Taylor from Buffalo
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Government & Affairs of the Nation
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1863 - Giles B. Stebbins of Rochester on “Hatyou Government” and antislavery
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1864 - E. W. Cooper, Editor of the West Branch Bulletin published in Williamsport, PA
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1864 – Lewis H. Clark, late principal of the Sodus academy and his private, select school in Pultneyville, “James River and its Historic Association.”
Temperance – while talked about . . . not always practiced in Pultneyville!
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1869 - S. B. McIntire of Palmyra lectured on the topic
Phrenology
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Orson Squire Fowler who also originated octagon houses
Abolition
Perhaps the most notable of all to lecture at Union Church, now Gates Hall, was Frederick Douglass, influential abolitionist, on the topic of Slavery. His interest as a former slave himself, was to strengthen the Anti-Slavery Movement. He visited Pultneyville on three documented occasions in 1849, 1853, and 1861.
Giles B. Stebbins
Photo Credit: Find-A-Grave
Frederick Douglass