B&O Railroad Museum’s Executive Director Kris Hoellen says that her team learned that the Mt. Clare station in the city’s southwest side was used by at least 20 confirmed freedom seekers.
A stop on the Underground Railroad was apparently hidden in plain sight as it included an actual railroad station, authorities have discovered.
Skyler Henry, a reporter with CBS News, said the train station, located in Baltimore, Maryland, played a major role in the Underground Railroad, which helped dozens of enslaved men, women and children reach freedom.
B&O Railroad Museum’s Executive Director Kris Hoellen said that her team learned that the Mt. Clare station in the city’s southwest side was used by at least 20 confirmed freedom seekers, but likely more, heading north to escape slavery.
The railroad was built in 1851 to provide improved passenger service for Baltimore’s Southwest neighborhoods, according to the museum’s website.
The famed Henry “Box” Brown” passed through the station, having been stowed away in a wooden container for 27 hours while subsisting solely on water stored in an animal bladder and breathing through a hole drilled into the box.
The National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom recognizes nearly 700 sites in 39 states, and the Mt. Clare station has become one of the latest destinations.
Hoellen said it’s important to give these stories a home. The museum was granted $200,000 to build out a permanent exhibit highlighting the journeys to freedom.
"I really honestly had no idea what hallowed grounds we are on. I mean, it's truly a treasure,” Hoellen said.
