Find out how many York County sites are approved Underground Railroad stations
York County, Pa., Underground Railroad site
The William C. Goodridge House on York, Pa.’s, East Philadelphia Street is one of York County’s sites appearing a national Underground Railroad list. (See additional photograph below.) Also of interest: Freed slaves living north of Mason-Dixon Line often faced return to bondage and Research needed to unearth Underground Railroad in York County – Part I and Research needed to unearth Underground Railroad in York County, Part II.
A recent sinkhole under a West Philadelphia Street home in York caused some commenters on those news reports to say that an exposed basement was part of the Underground Railroad.
Indeed, find a house built before the Civil War in York County, and there will be Underground Railroad lore attached to it.
So, how many houses in York County are certified as Underground Railroad sites? …
This unfinished part of the Goodridge House basement is believed to have to harbored fugitives. York Daily Record/Sunday News photos.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Listings, the National Park Service group that evaluates and approves such applications, indicates two – the William C. Goodridge House and the Willis House. (See the actual list here.)
Crispus Attucks Community Center is fundraising to turn the Goodridge House into a museum.
The Willis House was the 18th-century home of Quaker William Willis. Willis was a builder – with the original Centre Square York County Court House and West Philadelphia Street’s Friends Meeting House on his resume. His former house is now a private residence.
Adams County has three sites on the list, thanks to the research of historian Deb McCauslin.
– Burial Site of William & Phoebe Wright (Huntington Friends meeting)
– Burial Site of Cyrus Griest (Menallen Friends Meeting)
– Burial Ground at Yellow Hill
At the time of the acceptance of those sites, McCauslin aptly commented in 2006:
“There’s just so much more we can do to get recognition for these freedom seekers, these freedom fighters, because this is the county where the greatest battle of the war over slavery was fought.”
York countians who own reported Underground Railroad sites should do the legwork – or get someone to do the research – to gather facts to support the legends.
Those efforts would give the freedom seekers and freedom fighters north of the Mason-Dixon Line, east of the Adams County Line and west of the Susquehanna River the credit they deserve in defying the law by harboring fugitives.
Also of interest:
– All York County Underground Railroad posts from the start.
– All Yorktownsquare blog posts from the start.
