"The discovery centers on a concealed passageway hidden beneath a built‑in chest of drawers on the second floor of the East 4th Street landmark. The narrow opening, measuring roughly two feet square, descends 15 feet to the ground floor. Researchers say the passageway was constructed by abolitionist Joseph Brewster when the house was built in 1832, during a volatile period for anti‑slavery activism in the city."
"Historians say intact physical evidence of the Underground Railroad is extremely rare, making the discovery significant both locally and nationally. Architectural historian Patrick Ciccone said the survival of the passageway gives the Merchant's House "additional magnitudes of incalculable historic significance," noting how few physical traces of the Underground Railroad remain anywhere in the United States. New York City Council Member Chris Marte said the find underscores New York's often‑overlooked role in the abolitionist movement."
""Many New Yorkers forget that we were a part of the abolitionist movement, part of the Civil Rights movement," Marte said. "This hidden passageway is physical evidence that really shows New York City's connection to what happened in the south, what happened during the Civil War, and what's still happening today.""
A concealed passageway was discovered beneath a built‑in chest of drawers on the Merchant's House second floor, measuring roughly two feet square and descending 15 feet to the ground floor. The passageway was constructed by abolitionist Joseph Brewster when the house was built in 1832, during a volatile period for anti‑slavery activism. The site represents the earliest known location of Underground Railroad activity in New York City and supplies rare intact physical evidence of clandestine safe houses. The survival of the passageway adds magnitudes of incalculable historic significance, underscores New York's often‑overlooked role in the abolitionist movement, and highlights the city's continued ties to the Southern slave economy despite formal statewide abolition in 1827.
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