On Columbus Day weekend of 1998 James McConchie ’63 read in the Boston Globe that suffragist Susan B. Anthony’s birthplace was for sale. McConchie mentioned to his wife, Linda, that the historical home in Adams, Mass., was on the market. They saw the house that day, by the afternoon they put in a bid, and at 4 p.m. McConchie, an attorney, signed the papers. The real estate agency had 230 inquiries by the next day.

Of the quick decision to buy, McConchie said he and Linda had previously thought of "getting a project for retirement." A resident of Lincoln, Mass., McConchie is president and owner of the Recreation Group, which owns and manages area health clubs. Linda is executive director of the Freedom Trail Foundation, which coordinates educational programming, fund raising and marketing for 16 historical sites along the Freedom Trail in Boston.

Since January the couple has solicited suggestions from community residents and historical groups on how the house should be used. McConchie says he has observed heightened interest in such historical treasures and hopes that once the four-bedroom house is restored, it can serve as a museum and women’s studies center in the Berkshires. Its location, equidistant from several women’s colleges, is ideal.

Linda and the couple’s two daughters, Elizabeth and Lindsay ’98, own the house as partners in Failure Is Impossible, the company McConchie set up to buy the property. The company’s name comes from Susan B. Anthony’s famous 86th birthday speech. When she died soon after, the line became a slogan for the suffragist movement. McConchie says it is appropriate that the women in his family own the house: "We have a very femininely-based household." His daughters, who plan to help run the establishment, "love the property, the idea and the house."

McConchie says the first thing he learned about historical restoration was "don’t do anything–wait for the professionals." He currently is involved in the requirements and obligations of creating a nonprofit organization so the house will qualify for certain funds as a charity. McConchie says there is less bureaucracy in setting up the foundation than he anticipated. "The process hasn’t been lengthy," he said, but he is hesitant to define a time line. He hopes to start renovations by next summer.

Susan B. Anthony’s father built the home in 1817, and she was born there in 1820. Her family moved to Greenwich, N.Y., in 1826, but the house stayed in the family until 1920 when the Quakers took over and ran it as a museum through the 1940s. Because of its previous role as a museum the house contains extensive archives, including photos and drawings that will aid in the restoration process. McConchie plans to return the home to its condition during Anthony’s residence.

"It will be Spartan. Her family was Quaker," he said. Most of the renovations will be cosmetic and will involve stripping away what was added after Anthony’s residence–six layers of linoleum, for example–until the house looks as it did in the early 1820s. "Our goal is to historically renovate it as much as possible," said McConchie. Given the family’s commitment, failure is impossible.

–Alicia Nemiccolo MacLeay ’97