Latest Network Members

Discover the newest members of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom! Our member sites help us to understand the significance of the Underground Railroad and the broader history of the United States. Through preservation, commemoration, interpretation, and education these resources offer a comprehensive overview of the people, places, and events associated with the Underground Railroad. To learn how to become a part of the Network to Freedom Program.
The network’s new sites, facilities, and programs that joined in 2026 are listed below. Some of the sites may be privately owned and not open to the public. Please respect the privacy of the owners. Explore more Network to Freedom places and participants.

California

Hackett House - Archy Lee Escape Site, Calif.

The Hackett House, a Black-owned hotel in Sacramento, served as a pivotal Underground Railroad site where the 1858 arrest of Archy Lee ignited a landmark legal battle and a massive mobilization of California’s Black community, ultimately resulting in a federal ruling that secured Lee's freedom.

Colorado

Riverside Cemetery, Denver, Colo.

Denver’s Riverside Cemetery serves as the final resting place for Barney Ford, Henry Wagoner and Silas Soule, three prominent figures who collaborated with abolitionist leaders like John Brown and Vigilance Committees to facilitate daring escapes before migrating to Colorado during the gold rush.

Delaware

Perils of the Journey: Flight and Clash at the Todd Hotel, Wilmington, Del.

Canby Grove Park marks the site of a violent 1857 confrontation at the former Todd Hotel, where a group of approximately 18 freedom seekers, potentially advised by Harriet Tubman, bravely fought off a mob during their perilous journey from Maryland through Delaware toward freedom. 

District of Columbia

Escape, Service and Memory, Archer Alexander and the Empancipation Memorial, Washington D.C.

The Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., honors the formally enslaved community that paid for as a tribute to Lincoln after his assassination and the legacy of Archer Alexander. Alexander’s daring 1863 escape and intelligence work for Union forces served as the real-life model for the monument’s figure and a symbol of the thousands of enslaved people who achieved self-liberation through wartime resistance.

Illinois

Rev. John and Lucinda Cross Home, Batavia, Ill.

The Batavia family home of Reverend John and Lucinda Cross stands as an interpretation place that highlights John Cross’s involvement with creating a physical network across Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois and was arrested multiple times for assisting freedom seekers.

St. Charles History Museum, St. Charles, Ill. (Facility)

The St. Charles History Museum preserves primary and secondary documentation that supported antislavery and abolitionist activity where, beginning in 1842, hundreds of freedom seekers utilized the town's strategic infrastructure and proximity to Chicago to secure their liberty or establish new lives within the community.

Kentucky

Catlettsburg Riverfront, Carlettsburg, Ky.

During the Civil War, the Union supply hub of Catlettsburg served as the launch point for one of Kentucky’s largest successful slave escapes. The group "Piketon 59", aided by abolitionist officers and future U.S. President James A. Garfield, survived an armed pursuit to reach freedom in Ohio aboard a government-contracted steamer.

Maine

James Matthews Burial Site, Hallowell, Maine

The grave of James Matthews in Hallowell, Maine, serves as a lasting tribute to a man who escaped enslavement in South Carolina via a maritime route in 1837 and lived the remainder of his life supported by a local community that documented his testimony, funded his burial and continues to honor his journey as an example of the Underground Railroad’s cooperative networks.

Maryland

Casselman River Bridge on The National Road, Grantsville, Md.

The Casselman River Bridge, a historic 1813 stone bridge on the National Road, serves as a vital site for interpreting the Underground Railroad's history, as it was traversed by countless travelers and freedom seekers, including Josiah Henson, who utilized the road as a corridor between Maryland, Virginia, and the free soil of Pennsylvania.

Michigan

William Lambert Homesite, Detroit, Mich.

William Lambert, a free-born tailor and prominent Black leader, utilized his Detroit home and business to coordinate a sophisticated Underground Railroad network, leading the Colored Vigilant Committee and collaborating with national figures like John Brown to transform the city into a critical terminal for freedom seekers crossing into Canada.

Woodstock Manual Labor Institute, Addison, Mich.

Prior Foster, a free-born Black activist and Underground Railroad conductor, established the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute in 1844 as a rare, Black-operated school in Michigan where freedom seekers could pay tuition through labor to gain the education and vocational training necessary for success in a free society.

Missouri

Mt. Pleasant Baptist Chruch and Cemetery, Wildwood, Mo.

The Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and Cemetery in Wildwood, Missouri serves as a vital commemorative site for eight men who fled nearby plantations in 1864 to enlist in the 68th United States Colored Infantry, several of whom returned after the Civil War to help establish the church and were eventually interred in its cemetery.

Ohio

George and Sarah Gammon House, Springfield, Ohio

Despite the dangers of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, George and Sarah Gammon utilized their brick cottage, which still stands today, in Springfield, Ohio, to provide vital aid to freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad.

James M. Ashley Residence Historical Marker,
Portsmouth, Ohio

A historical marker in Portsmouth, Ohio, commemorates the residence of James M. Ashley, a lifelong Underground Railroad conductor who, during his early years in Scioto County, collaborated with both Black and white allies to guide freedom seekers across the Ohio River toward safety.

Johnston House and Post Office, Burlington, Ohio

The Johnston House, which functioned as the village post office and Underground Railroad hub, remains the appropriate extant site for interpreting how the postmaster, Black and white residents of Burlington, Ohio, collaborated to assist freedom seekers traveling from the Ohio River to inland settlements such as Poke Patch.

Lewis Brooks and Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church, Proctorville, Ohio

The Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church stands as the primary surviving landmark of the Red Hill Settlement, a free Black community where conductor Lewis Brooks famously risked his life to defend freedom seekers from slave catchers, eventually helping to found a congregation that embodied the spirit of refuge and resistance for those crossing the Ohio River.

Portsmouth Steamship Landing, Portsmouth, Ohio

Documented through first-person narratives and legal records, Portsmouth’s Steamboat Landing served as a critical international gateway and intermodal hub where high-profile abolitionists like Josiah Henson and Henry Bibb, along with countless unnamed freedom seekers, transitioned from river travel to inland routes on their journeys toward freedom in Canada.

Pennsylvania

William and Deborah Wright House, Borough of Columbia, Pa. (not open to the public)

The 1795 Wright home in Columbia, Pennsylvania, served as a foundational Underground Railroad safe house where Quakers William and Deborah Wright coordinated river crossings, provided legal and physical refuge, and established Black settlements that integrated with the private railroad networks of wealthy Black merchants to support a multi-state system of self-liberation.

West Virginia

Asbury Parker's Passage to Freedom, Huntington, W.Va.

After fleeing a Kentucky iron furnace in 1857, freedom seeker Asbury Parker utilized the natural gateway of the Ohio River corridor near modern-day Huntington to escape to Canada, eventually returning to the region as a free man after the Civil War.