Statement of Significance (as of designation - August 6, 1998):
Few of those who have sung "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in his grave," know that his grave is here in upstate New York. It was from his small, plain, unpainted frame farmhouse that the famous and controversial abolitionist set forth, first to Kansas, then to Harpers Ferry, with his plan to exorcize slavery from America by armed confrontation. At his request, his body was returned here for burial after he was tried for treason and executed in 1859. From the moment he was interred, the farmhouse and gravesite were regarded as a shrine, and from them "histruth goes marching on." The property was deeded to the State of New York in 1896, and is open to the public as a State Historic Site.