HISTORICAL MARKERS LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES & TOURS

Although time has taken its toll on many 18 Historical Society of Pennsylvania Underground Railroad landmarks, these historical 1300 Locust Street, hsp.org Tuesday, 12:30–5:30 p.m.; Wednesday, 12:30–8:30 p.m.; markers recount the people, places and events that Thursday, 12:30–5:30 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. paved the way to freedom for those who dared and, Hundreds of documents relating to the abolitionist movement are part of ultimately, helped end the practice of slavery. this repository of 600,000 printed items and more than 21 million manuscripts and graphic items. Visitors can view Underground Railroad agent William Still’s journal that documents the experiences of enslaved people who passed through Philadelphia.

6 Pennsylvania Hall 14 Robert Mara Adger 19 Library Company of Philadelphia 6th Street near Race Street 823 South Street 1314 Locust Street, librarycompany.org First U.S. building specifically African American businessman and Weekdays, 9 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. constructed as an abolitionist meeting co-founder and president of the Among this Benjamin Franklin–established organization’s holdings is the space (1838); ransacked and burned American Negro Historical Society. 13,000-piece Afro-American Collection, which includes documents and four days after opening. books about slavery and abolitionism, Frederick Douglass’ narratives, 15 William Whipper JOHNSON HOUSE portraits of African American leaders and other artifacts. 7 Philadelphia Female 919 Lombard Street Anti-Slavery Society African American businessman * Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University 5th & Arch streets who was active in the Underground (3 miles from Historic District) Circa 1833 group of indomitable Railroad and co-founder of the Sullivan Hall, 1330 W. Berks Street, library.temple.edu/collections/blockson women, including Lucretia Mott, who American Moral Reform Society. Weekdays, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. organized to oppose slavery. World-renowned for its vast collections, this library features narratives 16 Frances E.W. Harper by Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass, first-edition works by Phillis 8 Anthony Benezet 1006 Bainbridge Street Wheatley and W.E.B. Du Bois, correspondence by Haitian revolutionaries 325 Chestnut Street African American poet, abolitionist, and other priceless items. French Quaker who founded the William Still collaborator, feminist Society for the Relief of Free Negroes and co-founder of the National * Chester County Historical Society (35 miles from Historic District) Unlawfully Held in Bondage in 1775. Association for Colored Women. 225 N. High Street, West Chester, chestercohistorical.org Tuesday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. 9 Cyrus Bustill 17 William Still Artifacts and manuscripts recount the region’s abolitionist history and role Arch Street between 2nd & 3rd streets 244 S. 12th Street in the Underground Railroad. In summer 2020, new gallery installations Emancipated African American who African American abolitionist, author will expand upon the current exhibit. served in the Continental Army and of The Underground Railroad Records co-founded the Free African Society. (1872), agent along the Underground * Kennett Underground Railroad Center (35 miles from Historic District) Railroad who helped 649 people and 120 N. Union Street, Kennett Square, kennettundergroundrr.org 10 London Coffee House co-founder of the first Black YMCA. Tours every third Sunday, May through October Front & Market streets LIBERTY BELL CENTER Volunteers offer guided bus tours of key sites. From 1754, a coffee shop and pub * African Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church (1 mile from where recently arrived Africans were * National Archives at Philadelphia (11 miles from Historic District) sold by public auction. Historic District) 14700 Townsend Road, archives.gov/philadelphia 4th & Brown streets Weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. 11 Pennsylvania Abolition Society Founded in 1794, the first home Part of the National Archives Federal Records Center, this Northeast Front Street below Chestnut Street of Philadelphia’s Underground Philadelphia site has microfiche, digital and paper versions of 18th- through Quaker-based group, founded in 1775 Railroad and the meeting place for 20th-century texts documenting military service, Freedmen’s Bureau, that eventually litigated slaves’ cases; the Vigilant Committee. courtroom transcripts and family search websites to research residents of Benjamin Franklin served as a society Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. president in 1787. * Robert Purvis (1.5 miles from Historic District) 12 Liberation of Jane Johnson 1601 Mt. Vernon Street 211 S. Columbus Boulevard Co-founder of the American Anti- Famously chose freedom for herself Slavery Society and president of the and her children in 1855, aided by Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society; William Still and five African American helped over 9,000 slaves escape. dockworkers, while traveling through Philadelphia. * William Lewis (5 miles from Historic District) 13 Free African Society 2450 Strawberry Mansion Drive WANT MORE ON WHERE TO GO AND 6th & Lombard streets U.S. attorney and district court judge WHAT TO DO IN PHILADELPHIA? Circa 1787 mutual aid society for who established the principle of fugitive slaves and new migrants, conscientious objection and helped founded by African American leaders draft and pass An Act for the Gradual visitphilly.com | uwishunu.com Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and Abolition of Slavery (1780). Cyrus Bustill. MOTHER BETHEL A.M.E. Photos by J. Fusco, R. Kennedy, J. Sterling Ruth & G. Widman for VISIT PHILADELPHIA® UNDERGROUND RAILROAD PHILADELPHIA UNDERGROUND PHILADELPHIA LANDMARKS RAILROAD SITES (Center City locations are numbered. Asterisks (*) denote locations beyond Center City.)

1 Liberty Bell Center 6th & Market streets, nps.gov/inde Daily, fall through spring, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.; extended hours in summer “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” reads the biblical inscription atop this famously cracked Bell and symbol of the abolitionist movement. Exhibits and videos trace the evolution of the Bell into an international icon of freedom.

2 President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation 6th & Market streets, nps.gov/inde Daily, 7 a.m. – 10 p.m. In the shadows of Independence Hall stand the remnants of the home where President George Washington enslaved nine Africans. In 1796, one of them, Ona Judge, used the help of Philadelphia’s community of free Blacks to escape bondage. This open-air site provides visitors with different hiladelphia, home of perspectives of this powerful story. Pthe 17th-century Quaker abolitionist movement and the 3 Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church city where a young Harriet 6th & Lombard streets, motherbethel.org Tubman found freedom, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. played a vital role in the Founded by Bishop Richard Allen, Mother Bethel African Methodist Underground Railroad. For Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church sits on the oldest parcel of land continuously centuries, Philadelphia’s owned by African Americans and serves as the “mother” church of the Historic District was an active nation’s first Black denomination. Allen and his wife, Sarah, offered port where African individuals escaped Africans refuge here. Harriet Tubman, Lucretia Mott, Frederick and families were brought to Douglass and William Still spoke from Mother Bethel’s still-active pulpit. be sold, separated and sent off Visitors can view the Allens’ tombs and early artifacts. * Belmont Mansion (6 miles from Historic District sites) to enslavement. And yet, this 2000 Belmont Mansion Drive, Fairmount Park, belmontmansion.org same district was home to the 4 African American Museum in Philadelphia Tuesday–Friday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. nation’s largest neighborhood 701 Arch Street, aampmuseum.org This 1742 mansion belonged to Judge Richard Peters, who purchased slaves of free African Americans, the Wednesday–Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon – 5 p.m. in order to free them and hid fugitives in his attic. The site’s Underground Seventh Ward (between Spruce The country’s first institution funded and built by a major municipality Railroad Museum tells of Cornelia Wells, a freed African American woman. and South streets and 6th to preserve, interpret and exhibit the heritage of African Americans has and 23rd streets), and the first on permanent exhibit Audacious Freedom: African Americans in Philadelphia * Historic Fair Hill (3.5 miles from Historic District sites) African Methodist Episcopal 1776-1876. It features a narrated timeline and video portrayals of Bishop 2901 Germantown Avenue, historicfairhill.com Church (Mother Bethel). Richard Allen, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Octavius Catto and more Daily, daylight hours only. Tours every second Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. PRESIDENT’S HOUSE trailblazers and activists. The museum also hosts rotating art exhibitions This 1703 Quaker burial ground is the final resting place of Lucretia Mott, Freedom was the goal for exploring the modern Black experience. Robert Purvis and other abolitionists. It’s also an environmental education center. the thousands of enslaved Six murals depicting 300 years of struggle for social justice surround the site. Africans on the Underground 5 Historic St. George’s Methodist Church Railroad, a secret network 235 N. 4th Street, historicstgeorges.org * Johnson House (11 miles from Historic District sites) of safe houses, churches and Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. 6306 Germantown Avenue, johnsonhouse.org farms that offered shelter and In 1784, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones became the first licensed Walk-in tours Thursday–Friday, February–June and September–November, safety, which many found in African American Methodist ministers, but the two led a walkout when 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; and Saturday, year-round, 1 – 4 p.m. the Philadelphia region. Here, the leaders of St. George’s restricted seating for its Black members. In This circa 1768 Germantown home belonged to devout Quakers Samuel and you’ll find notable Philadelphia 1787, the pair helped found the Free African Society, a nondenominational Jennett Johnson, who, in the early 1800s, took in escaped slaves. Secret hiding sites and Philadelphians who “mutual aid” society that helped fugitives from slavery and new migrants. spots, including a trap door in the attic, are visible today. William Still visited bravely worked to keep the the house and, according to family lore, so did Harriet Tubman. railroad running. AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM IN PHILADELPHIA