David Ruggles Gravesite Yantic Cemetery, Lafayette and Williams Streets Holy cow. As I set my fingers to keyboard and get ready to write a short page about this Underground Railroad site, I just realized this is the next to last of the current 29 UR sites for me to visit! I didn’t even know. Pardon my lack … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Stratford
Asa Seymour Curtis House 2016 Elm Street We actually found this house years ago – back when it was part of the Freedom Trail before disappearing from it, only to reappear on the Underground Railroad Trail in 2011. I won't bore you with the amazing story of how I (rather quickly) figured out what date we drove by it … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Brooklyn (4)
We did some drive-by (photo) shootings in Brooklyn (Connecticut) the other day, along the Underground Railroad Trail. As you’ll read below, all four of these places are very interconnected. 1. Friendship Valley 60 Pomfret Road The first of four centrally located Underground Railroad Trail joints in Brooklyn. … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Hampton
Theodore Dwight Weld House 77 Parsonage Road Yet another terrible picture of a lovely (and rather huge) house. Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-1895) was born in this house and lived here until 1825. For 18 nights in February 1834, all students and some faculty of the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio held the first … [Read more...]
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Gardens
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Gardens Hartford Related CTMQ Posts: Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Museum A stop on the Underground Railroad Trail For most people, a visit to the Stowe Center means that all your pictures will be taken out here – in the gardens. Because Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house is one of the … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Stonington (Mystic)
Greenmanville Historic District Mystic Seaport, 75 Greenmanville Avenue Named for its founders, Greenmanville represents a typical 19th century industrial town with a rich documented history of participation in the movement to abolish slavery. The Greenman brothers founded a shipyard here and became social … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Hartford
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center 71 Forest Street, Hartford The Beecher-Stowe House part of the Mark Twain House complex - a bunch of absolutely beautiful old houses in Hartford. It's also, of course, a museum which I visited here. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), an antislavery novel … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Glastonbury
Kimberly Mansion, Glastonbury 1625 Main Street This stop along the Underground Railroad Trail is a rarity; it has its own Wikipedia entry as well as other web presence. Good for you, Kimberly Mansion! It also has a bronze plaque in the middle of the front lawn which I didn't notice until looking at my picture. … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Enfield
Shaker Village Shaker Road This area was once occupied by the only Shaker settlement in Connecticut. Dissenting from many activities of American society, the Shakers were associated with reform movements, including feminism, pacifism, and abolitionism. The diary of one member records the visits of fugitive … [Read more...]
URR Trail: Deep River
William Winters House & Neighborhood Winters Avenue & Mitchell Lane It's not often I find myself in downtown Deep River. In fact, I don't think I've ever been there before now. It just doesn't have the caché as say, a Chester or an Essex. Yet there it is, right between the two. Perhaps it's a bit grittier than … [Read more...]