About ten miles below Towanda in Bradford County, Pennsylvania we wind our way along the Pennsylvania Trail of History to French Azilum, located on a lovely horseshoe bend of the meandering Susquehanna River. Azilum, or Asylum, was appropriately named, for it provided a natural setting of undisturbed calm and pastoral serenity for a group of French exiles who settled here in the autumn of 1793. |
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LaPorte House |
Some of the refugees, because of their loyalty to the King, had left France to escape imprisonment or death at the hands of the Revolution. Others had fled the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti) to escape the carnage of the mulatto and slave uprisings inspired by the declaration of equality of the radical French Assembly. According to an unverified story, even Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, and her two children were to settle here.
In time, several small shops, a schoolhouse, a chapel, and a theatre appeared around the market square; dairying and sheep raising were begun; orchards and gardens were planted; a gristmill, blacksmith shop and a distillery were erected; and the manufacture of potash and pearlash was established. |
And sadly, in time money became harder to obtain, income sources in France stopped and many of the emigres drifted away. Although a few families, the LaPortes, Homets, LeFevres, Brevosts and D'Autremonts remained in Pennsylvania where their progeny helped to settle Wysox, Wyalusing, Athens, Towanda and other communities, Azilum itself passed into history.
Of the more than fifty structures erected by the refugees, not one remains. The four hundred-odd half-acre house and garden plots, so carefully planned and then abandoned, were absorbed into larger tracts of farmland and tilled for generations by later occupants. Step through a doorway into the past by visiting this historic site via this website... and then in person. Today this historic site contains over 20 acres of the original settlement. Although no structures from the original town survive, an original foundation has been left exposed for public viewing. A reconstructed and relocated log cabin, circa 1790, serves as a small museum with artifacts pertaining to the settlement. We offer guided tours of the LaPorte house, our restored house museum. You can also see several outbuildings, part of the LaPorte Farm and outdoor exhibits as part of your self-guided tour of the site. |
Volunteers wanted!
Are you interested in archaeology? Always wanted to be Indiana Jones?
Come experience the life of an archaeologist at French Azilum! A
team of archaeologists under Maureen and Daniel Costura, doctoral
students at Cornell University, will be excavating in the vicinity of
the LaPorte House. In the process, volunteer archaeologists will
learn to identify ceramics, bones and glass of the period,
scientifically excavate a site, and properly clean and label artifacts.
The excavation period will be from April to July 2008. Volunteers
must be at least 18 unless accompanied by an adult. We would prefer
committed volunteers who can attend for at least a week. Contact
French Azilum for details at 570 265-3376 or frenchazilum@epix.net |
| Managed by French Azilum, Inc. A Non-profit Corporation founded in 1954 |
Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission |
| Owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania |
Member Site: Endless Mountains Heritage Trail |
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