The Site of the Ann Street Boarding House

The approximate site of the Ann Street Boardinghouse.

NPS Photo/Pollock

Quick Facts

Location:

153-155 Ann Street

Significance:

Boarding House for Thomas Sims

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

This is the site of a boarding house for “colored seamen” where Thomas Sims lived when he reached Boston in March 1851.¹ Sims escaped from Savannah, Georgia as a stowaway. Discovered onboard in Boston Harbor, Sims evaded the crew, stole a small boat and safety made his way to the city where he soon moved into this boarding house. By early April, slave catchers arrested him, and despite the best efforts of Boston’s abolitionists, returned him to slavery in Georgia.

Thomas Sims stayed at the Ann Street boarding house, most likely located between Quincy Court and Jasper Place in this 1851 map. (Credit: Boston Public Library)

Footnotes:

1. Leonard W. Levy, "The Fugitive Slave Law in Boston in 1851," The Journal of Negro History 35, no. 1 (Jan., 1950): 43.