Built in 1843 for the religious services of the abolitionist Wesleyan Methodists, Wesleyan Methodist Chapel also hosted meetings of anti-slavery, temperance, and other reform groups, including the first women’s rights convention on July 19 and 20, 1848, which began the women’s rights movements that continue today. After the Wesleyans moved to a new church in 1872, the building was not preserved, and later owners raised the roof, added sections to the front and rear, and repeatedly remodeled the interior as it served as stores, a public hall, an opera house, a movie theater, several car dealerships, and, by 1961, the Seneca Falls Laundromat. When the National Park Service acquired the site in 1985, only portions of the two side walls and roof remained from the original chapel, and limited evidence made an accurate historic restoration impossible. In 1987, a national design competition chose a plan that removed post-1848 additions, lowered the roof to its original height, and redesigned the grounds to highlight the Declaration of Sentiments approved at the convention, and the chapel and grounds were dedicated in 1993 as a preservation of this historic and symbolic place.