Opened in 1856, the antislavery meeting hall here brought many leading abolitionist speakers as guests of George Corson and his wife, Martha Maulsby Corson. Built over a carriage shed, the hall could accommodate up to 200 visitors. The family's 1767 homestead here had already long been a station on the Underground Railroad. Later, from 1881 to 1895, Abolition Hall was the studio of son-in-law Thomas Hovenden, who painted “Last Moments of John Brown.”