Underground Railroad – Page 2 – Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

48 Pomeroy Terrace, Northampton (1850)

by Dan/January 22, 2012January 22, 2012/Houses, Italianate, Northampton

The house at 48 Pomeroy Terrace in Northampton was built around 1850, or perhaps as early as 1847. Its first resident was Rev. Rufus Ellis (1819-1885), a Unitarian clergyman who rented the property. In 1853, Edward Clarke sold it to Mary Ann Cochran and the house became known as the Miss Cochran Cottage. According to tradition, the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In the 1850s, the house’s cupola had differently colored panes of glass and fugitive slaves were said to have known whether it was safe to proceed based on which pane was lit. The house is now used for the offices of the neighboring College Church.

Lewis Hayden House (1833)

by Dan/April 12, 2011January 19, 2020/Boston, Federal, Houses

Lewis Hayden escaped from slavery in Kentucky in 1844 on the Underground Railroad and later settled in Boston, where he owned a used clothing store and became a leading abolitionist. He moved into his house, built in 1833 at 66 Philips Street (then called Southac Street) on Boston’s Beacon Hill, in 1849. With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Hayden and his wife Harriet hid fugitive slaves in their home. In 1853, abolitionist Francis Jackson purchased the house, which Hayden occupied as a tenant, to help protect him from harassment for his Underground Railroad activities. Jackson’s estate sold the house to Hayden’s wife in 1865. This important house is a stop on the Black Heritage Trail.

Jackson Homestead (1809)

by Dan/March 22, 2009September 17, 2016/Federal, Houses, Newton

In about 1670, Edward Jackson built a saltbox house on his farmland in a section of Cambridge south of the Charles River in what is today the City of Newton. Edward was involved in the movement to seperate Newton from Cambridge. His son, Sebas Jackson also lived in the house, followed by his son Joseph and then his son, Lt. Timothy Jackson, who died in 1774. Over these years, the original property was subdivided. Lt. Timothy Jackson’s widow, Sarah Smith Jackson, was left to look after the farm, while her son, Maj. Timothy Jackson, fought in the Revolutionary War. In 1809, Timothy replaced the old homestead with a new mansion house in the Federal style. After his death in 1814, with his sons having moved to Boston, the house was rented to a farmer, but eventually Timothy’s son, William Jackson, who, like his father had a notable public career, moved into and the house in 1820 and enlarged it. William started a soap and candle factory and a was a general agent for the Boston and Worcester Railroad and ensured that the line would be routed through Newton.

William Jackson’s house is well documented to have been a station on the Underground Railroad. William’s brother, Francis Jackson, was also an abolitionist and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. Francis was the author of A History of the Early Settlement of Newton (1854). After William’s death in 1855, his widow, Mary Bennett Jackson, and three unmarried daughters occupied the house. One of these daughters. Ellen Jackson, wrote a memoir of growing up in the home called Annals from the Old Homestead (1895). William’s decedents lived in the homestead until 1932, when it was rented. The Jackson Homestead was later owned by Frances Middendorf, who left it to the City in 1949. It became the Netwon History Museum in 1950. There is a pdf document with further details about the Homestead and the Jackson family.