Underground Railroad Passageway Found in New York Museum

A landmark building in New York City that is now a prestigious museum recently discovered its ties to the Underground Railroad.

The Merchant House Museum, a 19th-century townhouse located in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, recently discovered a narrow passageway hidden under a set of built-in drawers. Archaeologists determined that this passage leads to a “safe house” that helped protect enslaved people.

“We knew it was here, but didn’t really know what we were looking at,” Camille Czerkowicz, the curator for the Merchant’s House Museum, said to Spectrum News NY1.

Czerkowicz said that museum employees were always aware of the passageway there, but didn’t determine its full significance until it was explored further.

When you remove the bottom drawer from the dresser, you can see a rectangular opening cut into the floorboards. This led to an enclosed space about two-by-two feet with a ladder leading further to the ground floor.

Built in 1832 and later turned into a museum in 1936, the museum showcases a bit of New York history for tourists.

The home was built by Joseph Brewster. Historians believe that Brewster, an abolitionist, had the secret passageway constructed along the building’s west wall, according to Spectrum News NY1.

The Underground Railroad was a secret system of routes and safe houses that were used by enslaved Africans Americans who sought freedom.

“It’s a critical piece of the overall struggle for freedom and justice,” Manhattan Councilman Harvey Epstein said after the discovery.