Hoage House

Lafayette and Harriet Hoage, believed to be the first African-American family to settle here in 1868, built this vernacular Italianate house in 1872, and their seven children were born here. During the Civil War, Lafayette aided a severely wounded Union Army Captain, Alonzo L. Mabbett, who brought him to Rochester, where the captain's family were conductors with the Underground Railroad. Lafayette and Harriet, née Henon, were married in Rochester's African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867. In this house, Lafayette, a coachman and member of Rutherford's Lincoln League, and Harriet, a seamstress, raised three daughters and four sons, one of whom, Rutherford, died in infancy. Their oldest child, Lillian Florence Hoage, also a seamstress, remained in this house through the mid-1930's. Their son David became a physician and co-founder of the American Negro Tennis Association, and his brother George Lafayette became an aide to eight Minnesota governors, including Harold Stassen.

Rutherford, New Jersey · United States