Mapes House decorated for July 4

The Seward Homestead Organization in Florida, NY, draped the Mapes House in red, white and blue for the Fourth of July.

The Mapes House is named after Mortimer Mapes, the man who had it built for his family in 1887. It is a Queen Anne-style Victorian with many of its original features still intact. Also on the property is a large barn built with what remains of the birthplace of William Henry Seward, former governor and senator of New York, secretary of state in the Lincoln administration, and driving force behind the purchase of Alaska in 1867.

In 2010, a group of local citizens formed The Seward/Mapes Homestead Committee to function as a stewardship organization for the property, including the remnants of the Seward birthplace, and became incorporated as Seward Homestead, Inc.

The property also comprises a park, known as the Seward-Mapes Homestead Park.

For more information, visit their website at SewardHomestead.org.