Quaker home added to register of historic places
The former home of Pennsylvanian Quakers and Underground Railroad leaders William and Letitia Still has been added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Friends in Philadelphia are celebrating the announcement that the former home of William and Letitia Still, Pennsylvanian Quakers and Underground Railroad leaders, has been awarded a place on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.
The anti-slavery husband and wife sheltered hundreds of escapees in their home between 1850 and 1855, particularly in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which required that Northern states assist in capturing escaped slaves.
The designation, which was unanimously backed by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, means that no significant changes or demolition can be made to the structure without permission from the Commission.
The campaign to protect the property was supported by experts including Eric Foner, Columbia University historian, and Lonnie G Bunch III, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History.
The house in Philadelphia has been described as ‘one of the most important surviving stations of the Chesapeake-Pennsylvania-New York-Canada network of the eastern Underground Railroad’.
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