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 2025 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.

Canada

Buxton National Historic Site, Facility, and Program, Ontario

Buxton, originally part of the Elgin Settlement founded in 1849 by Reverend William King near Chatham, became a destination and settlement for freedom seekers. 

Connecticut

William Grimes Burial Site, Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven

William Grimes’s burial site at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven represents the final resting place of one of the earliest documented freedom seekers. His published testimony helped shape the ideological foundation of what would later be known as the Underground Railroad. 

California

Biddy Mason Charitable Trust, Los Angeles

Established in 2013, a key component of the trust’s work involves historical education, using Biddy Mason's journey from slavery to success.

Owen Brown Gravesite, Altadena

Owen Brown (1824–1889), the third-oldest son of abolitionist John Brown, was a key partner in his father’s militant antislavery work and Underground Railroad activities from the 1830s to the 1850s. 

Georgia

Susie King Escape to Freedom Program, Hinesville

The Annual Susie King Taylor Escape to Freedom Program is held each April at Susie King Taylor Freedom Park in Liberty County to honor the 1862 escape of 13-year-old Susie King Taylor from enslavement during the Civil War. 

Illinois

Joseph P. and Julia “Ann” Bartlett House, Maple Park

Joseph Pulcifer (1810–1893) and Julia “Ann” Bartlett (1811–1876) were early settlers in Campton Township. Their home operated as a well-documented Underground Railroad safehouse.

Quinn Chapel AME Church, Chicago

Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, founded in 1844, played a crucial role in the abolitionist movement and operated as a major Underground Railroad station. 

Voices of the Past: The Underground Railroad in Northern Illinois, Naperville

Voices of the Past: The Underground Railroad in Northern Illinois engages students and teachers through an interactive program that casts students as newspaper apprentices investigating the period leading up to the Civil War, allowing them to explore multiple perspectives on resistance to enslavement through primary sources, 3D videos, and documented personal accounts. 

Iowa

African American History Museum of Iowa, Cedar Rapids

Founded in 1993, the African American Museum of Iowa serves a vital mission to educate thousands of visitors annually through exhibits, workshops and programs about Iowa’s role in the Underground Railroad.

Kansas

Site of the John Graham House, Albany

The site of the John Graham House, now preserved as part of the Albany Historical Museum in Sabetha served as a vital station on the Underground Railroad's Lane Trail, a route established by 1859 for aiding freedom seekers traveling from Missouri to Iowa.

Kentucky

Asbury Parker Escape Memorial at ARMCO Park, Ashland

The Asbury Parker Memorial at ARMCO Park commemorates the 1857 escape of Asbury Parker from slavery at Clinton Furnace.  

Greenup County Courthouse Square, Greenup

The Greenup County Courthouse Square, located on the Ohio River, was a pivotal legal hub for the Underground Railroad, hosting numerous legal proceedings related to slavery and freedom. 

St. Paul AME Church, Lexington

Historic St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Lexington, founded in 1820, is a dual landmark serving as one of Kentucky’s few surviving Underground Railroad era extant stations and the site of a historic funeral for freedom seeker Lewis Garrard Clarke.

Maryland

Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore

The Maryland Center for History and Culture preserves and interprets Maryland’s Underground Railroad history, which includes letters, diaries, maps and oral histories.  

Scipio Gantt’s Escape from Friendship Farm, Nanjemoy, Charles County

Friendship Farm Park in Charles County preserves the site of a 19th-century tobacco plantation where enslaved laborers endured harsh conditions and utilized waterways like Nanjemoy Creek as potential escape routes. 

Massachusetts

David W. Ruggles at New Bedford's Rotch-Jones-Duff House, New Bedford

The Rotch-Jones-Duff House is historically linked to the life and activism of David Wright Ruggles (1813-1904), a freedom seeker and abolitionist who worked there as a waiter from 1851 to 1853. 

Frances and Jonathan Drake House, Leominster

Johnathan and Frances Drake utilized their house as a station for Shadrack Minkins, who was the first prosecuted case in Boston during the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. 

Michigan

Gateway to Freedom Monument, Detroit

The Gateway to Freedom Monument at Hart Plaza was created by sculptor Ed Dwight as part of a two-piece sculpture on both sides of the Detroit River. The monument features eight freedom seekers and an Underground Railroad conductor, modeled after George DeBaptiste, as a reminder of Detroit’s legacy in assisting freedom seekers. 

Missouri

Missouri Historical Museum and Archive, St. Louis

The Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center serves as a vital repository documenting the history of enslavement and freedom-seeking in the St. Louis region from the colonial period to the Civil War. 

Missouri River Crossing Site, Wildwood

In February 1863, sixteen freedom seekers attempted a dangerous crossing of the high and fast-running Missouri River at Howell’s Ferry, a known route to sanctuary in Alton. 

They Fought Like Tigers: 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Statue, Butler

The First Kansas Volunteer Colored Infantry (KVCI) statue emphasizes the regiment's connection to the Underground Railroad and the fight for freedom. The first KVCI was composed of both free Black men and numerous freedom seekers that were directly tied to the Underground Railroad.  

New York

Self Liberation of George from Kleinrood, Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Kinderhook

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, formerly the Kleinrood estate of Peter Van Ness, commemorates an early act of resistance against slavery in New York's Hudson Valley. In 1804, a teenager known only as George escaped enslavement from the estate, which was later renamed Lindenwald by its most famous owner, Martin Van Buren. 

North Carolina

Sailing to Freedom, New Bern

From the early 1700s to the Civil War, New Bern served as a crucial escape route and destination for enslaved individuals seeking freedom. Its strategic location at the junction of the Neuse and Trent Rivers offered direct access to the Atlantic, making its waterways a central feature in acts of self-emancipation. 

Ohio

Gardner House, Columbus

Ozem (1797-1880) and Jane (1804–1869) Gardner were dedicated abolitionists who actively operated their cabin as a vital station on the Underground Railroad in Franklin County. 

Joe Logan and the West Union Underground Network West Union

Freedom seeker Joe Logan settled and purchased land in West Union after emancipating and reuniting his wife and child. Logan operated an Underground Railroad station in collaboration with Rev. John Graham of the West Union Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. 

Payne's Corner, Bidwell

In the fall of 1845, enslaved brothers Pleasant and Dave escaped Greenup County, Kentucky and crossed the Ohio River, seeking freedom. They were directed from Gallipolis to the town of Porter, Ohio, where they found refuge at Payne’s Corner Store and Post Office, operated by George and Harriet Payne. 

Salem Historical Society and Museum, Salem

The Salem Historical Society and Museum preserves and interprets the city's significant role as an Underground Railroad hub, largely due to the strong anti-slavery ideologies of its early Quaker settlers. Salem was also home to the headquarters of the Western Anti-Slavery Society which published the Anti-Slavery Bugle. 

Union Baptist Church of the Blackfork, Blackfork

Union Baptist Church, established in 1819, is the longest continually active African American church in Ohio and played a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad. 

Texas

Site of Old Bexar County Courthouse and Jail, San Antonio

From 1851 to 1865, the Old Bexar County Courthouse and Jail served as a crucial institutional barrier to freedom for enslaved people attempting to escape to Mexico. 

Virginia

Paths to Courage – Freedom Seeking at Historic Huntley, Nanjemoy

Historic Huntley in Fairfax County preserves the stories of three enslaved men, Bob, Sam Humphreys and Sandy, who risked everything to escape bondage.