Home and Office of Thaddeus Stevens
45-47 South Queen Street

These adjoining buildings were the former home and law office of Lancaster attorney, U.S. Congressman, and abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens from 1843 until his death in 1868. During the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Stevens served as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. After the Civil War, he led the Radical Republicans and pushed for strict enforcement of civil rights for freed African Americans, guiding the passage of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Modern alterations to these buildings include a garage door in the northern end of the ground floor. It is hoped that the façades will be restored to their nineteenth-century appearance and incorporated into the planned Lancaster County Convention Center, with interpretive displays about Stevens' life and career, including his evident involvement in the Underground Railroad.

The three-story brick corner building at 49 South Queen, at the intersection with Vine Street, is a former brewery and tavern known as the Kleiss Saloon. This building has also been altered through the addition of modern storefront windows, but recent archeological evidence provides links to Underground Railroad activities. The paired houses just around the corner, at 21-23 East Vine, are the former home of Lydia Hamilton Smith, Thaddeus Stevens' mulatto housekeeper and business manager, and a likely "conductor" for the Underground Railroad.

[These buildings are currently vacant, pending construction of the convention center. For more information on plans for renovation of these buildings, visit the web site of The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County at www.hptrust.org]