The New York State Antislavery Society held its inaugural meeting here on October 22, 1835. Abolitionists from across New York had met the day before at the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church in Utica to form a state antislavery society, but when unruly mobs disrupted the meeting and threatened their safety, Gerrit Smith invited the assembly of 600 to reconvene in Peterboro. Through the night, over 400 abolitionists made their way to Peterboro on horseback, on foot, in wagons, or by canal boat to Canastota. Peterboro residents opened their homes to feed and house them. The next day, the Society met in this building, then the Peterboro Presbyterian Church, and from that day forward Peterboro became an active site of antislavery activities because of Smith’s lifetime commitment to the abolition cause.