Women’s Heritage Trail

New JerseyWomen'sHeritage Trail

Department of Environmental ProtectionHistoric Preservation Office

Department of Community AffairsNew Jersey Historic Trust“I never doubted that equal rights

was the right direction. Most reforms,most problems are complicated. Butto me there is nothing complicated

about ordinary equality.”—Alice Paul (in an interview from 1972)

A lice Stokes Paul (1885-1977) was born and spent her childhood yearsin this farmhouse, Paulsdale. She grew up in a Quaker family with atradition of activism in education and public service and a strong

belief in equality. Alice Paul dedicated her entire life to the single cause ofsecuring equal rights for all women. She founded the National Woman’sParty in 1914 and led the first picketers to the White House gates in the name

of women’s suffrage. When women won theright to vote in 1920, Paul turned her focus tothe Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). From herwheelchair in a nursing home in nearbyMoorestown, she lobbied Representatives topass the ERA until her death in 1977. Paulworked for women’s rights nationally andinternationally and founded the World Woman’sParty in 1938 with its headquarters in Geneva,Switzerland. Alice Paul’s legacy lives on here atPaulsdale, through the work of the Alice PaulInstitute.

Paulsdale is on the NewJersey Women’s HeritageTrail because of thesignificant contributionsof suffragist Alice StokesPaul to women’s voluntaryorganizations and reformmovements.

The New Jersey Women’sHeritage Trail highlightsa collection of historicsites located around thestate that represent thesignificant contributionswomen made to thehistory of our state. TheHeritage Trail brings tolife the vital role ofwomen in New Jersey’spast and present.