His own children didn't want the house to be a landmark, but wanted the money...........Helen did some outstanding work to insure it became a landmark...........and in many cases it is less famous people like Helen that really make things work.................Dr. King did outstanding work, and so did Gen Grant of the Union army, but without the lieutenants, the foot soldiers and everyone else involved in the civil rights movement, the war would never have been won, blacks would have never got the right to vote............................there is usually one person who gets the most of the credit, or darn near all of it...........but one person can never do it all by herself, ever...........she might be at the front, but without the backing off the rest of the civil rights army for women or blacks or latinos or gays, or whatever, the leader is just talking to herself.................

Douglass' will left Cedar Hill to Helen, but it lacked the number of witnesses needed in bequests of real estate and was ruled invalid. Helen suggested to his children and their spouses that they agree to set Cedar Hill apart as a memorial to their father and deed it to a board of trustees. The children declined, insisting that the estate be sold and the money divided among all the heirs.

With borrowed money, Helen bought the property, and then devoted the rest of her life to planning and establishing the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association. Besides effecting passage of the law incorporating the association, she worked to raise funds to maintain the estate. For eight years, she lectured throughout the northeast.

During the last year of her life, Helen was ill and unable to lecture, as well as discouraged by the falling off of contributions for her cause. She begged the Rev. Francis Grimke not to let her work fall by the wayside in her absence. He suggested that if the mortgage on Cedar Hill should not be paid off in her lifetime, money from the sale of the property should go to two college scholarships in her and Frederick's names. She agreed, on the condition that the scholarships be in Douglass' name only.

After her death, the $5,500 mortgage was reduced to $4,000, and the National Association of Colored Women, led by Mary B. Talbert of Buffalo, New York, raised funds to buy Cedar Hill. Administered by theNational Park Service, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home conducts tours to inform visitors of Douglass' contributions to freedom.^[2]