The Lavinia Goodell Walking Tour
We are proud to debut two brand new, self-guided walking tours of downtown Janesville, Wisconsin which allow fans to follow in the footsteps of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin’s first woman lawyer. The walking tours pass by sites that Lavinia saw every day when she “went down street” (West Milwaukee Street) to go to her law office or pick up the mail at the post office; made the trek up the hill to the Rock County Courthouse; visited clients and taught classes at the jail on the bank of the Rock River; or stopped by the Janesville Gazette office to drop off an article she had written. We hope that people visiting southern Wisconsin take the time to look up these sites and see life as Lavinia lived it in the 1870s. Those who cannot take the tour in person can take a virtual tour. We encourage you to scroll through the images below, or click to enlarge them. You may also view the full walking tour as a PDF here. A printed brochure version of the tour is coming soon and will be available at select Rock County locations.
Finally did this interesting walking tour today after having found out about it through information at Rotary Gardens. Enjoyed using the maps to see how Lavinia navigated in her community to pursue her career and her stances on women’s rights, temperance, and rehabilitation for criminals. Two bonus discoveries during the walk. First Congregational Church, which Lavinia attended, also hosted Abraham Lincoln October 2, 1859! The second find was the old Janesville Library across from Courthouse Hill was an Andrew Carnegie library built in 1902! Wealthy Carnegie’s philanthropic endeavor to fund libraries in cites that provided a site and 10% of the costs enabled Janesville to erect this still impressive building. Many thanks for this step back into history to see how it impacted us today and to celebrate Lavinia’s role in advancing women.
This is great! I’ll pass it along to my Janesville friend, and hope to try it someday.
Bev