{"id":177386,"date":"2026-03-27T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177386\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:17:14","slug":"new-yorks-newly-identified-underground-railroad-passage-is-under-threat-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/177386\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s newly identified Underground Railroad passage is under threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TERRY TANG and JOSEPH FREDERICK<\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A newly identified Underground Railroad passageway once used by enslaved people fleeing to freedom is putting the spotlight on a New York City museum and its struggle against a proposed neighboring development.<\/p>\n

Staff at the Merchant\u2019s House Museum \u2014 an upper crust family home built in 1832 in Manhattan\u2019s NoHo district \u2014 last month revealed that researchers can now explain the passageway\u2019s historical purpose because they recently discovered that the home\u2019s original owner was an abolitionist. Historians and Black activists hail it as the first \u201cintact\u201d Underground Railroad site found in New York in over 160 years.<\/p>\n

The discovery has substantially raised the museum\u2019s foot traffic, along with hopes of staving off a possible nine-story mixed-use building next door because building it could damage the walls and foundation of the adjacent historic site.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat our engineers are saying is that there really is no way that a building of that size is built immediately next door to the museum without causing significant structural damage to our historic building,\u201d said Emily Hill-Wright, the museum\u2019s director of operations.<\/p>\n

The New York City\u2019s Landmarks Preservation Commission has been weighing whether to approve the development. Consultants and architects working on the project say the museum should not be heavily impacted.<\/p>\n

Revelations about the newly explained passageway come as an executive order by President Donald Trump is being used to remove references and imagery of slavery<\/a> from the nation\u2019s museums, parks and landmarks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New York-based civil rights activist Al Sharpton has cast the fate of the Merchant\u2019s Museum House as a fight for Black and American history.<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE \u2013 The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks ahead of the 61st Bloody Sunday Anniversary march, March 8, 2026, in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart, File)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen engineers tell me that an African American heritage site is in danger of structural compromise or any other sort of irreversible damage, I listen,\u201d Sharpton said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n

The Merchant\u2019s House Underground Railroad passageway lies beneath a 2-foot-by-2-foot wooden hatch hidden under a dresser drawer in the second floor hallway. It goes down a 15-foot shaft with a built-in ladder. The passageway was first found in the 1930s as the home was being turned into a museum, but it wasn\u2019t until 2024 that it came to light the home\u2019s first owner, Joseph Brewster, was an abolitionist.<\/p>\n

A passageway, believed to have been used as part of the Underground Railroad, is hidden in the base of a dresser inside the Merchant\u2019s House Museum in New York on Feb. 19, 2026. (Max Touhey\/Merchant\u2019s House Museum via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a dumbwaiter. It\u2019s not a laundry chute,\u201d Hill-Wright said. \u201cWe\u2019re able to sort of cross off all of these other theories about what this might have possibly been used for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings have drawn preservationists, history buffs and the general public.<\/p>\n

A passageway, believed to have been used as part of the Underground Railroad, is hidden in the base of a dresser inside the Merchant\u2019s House Museum in New York on Feb. 19, 2026. (Max Touhey\/Merchant\u2019s House Museum via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cFebruary was our highest month for visitors in over a year,\u201d Hill-Wright said. \u201cYou almost get choked up because it is a very visceral experience to see it with your own eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Underground Railroad network was established by Harriet Tubman<\/a>, who herself escaped slavery in 1849 and ended up living in Philadelphia. The operation is credited with facilitating the escape of numerous enslaved Black men and women. Tubman used her experiences as a scout, spy and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War and personally guided 150 Black soldiers on a gunboat raid in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE \u2013 A bronze statue of abolitionist Harriet Tubman is seen at the Maryland State House, Feb. 10, 2020, in Annapolis. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez, File)<\/p>\n

At the time the Brewster home was built, assisting someone through the Underground Railroad was against the law in New York City. There would have been \u201csevere penalties,\u201d said Jacob Morris, director of the Harlem Historical Society. There are documented cases of abolitionists getting attacked for protecting enslaved escapees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBounty hunters were all over the place in New York City. They made their living on catching freedom-seeking Blacks,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIf you got caught helping Blacks escape from slavery, a mob could come and burn down your house and beat you up. And maybe even tar and feather you or worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tang reported from Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TERRY TANG and JOSEPH FREDERICK NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A newly identified Underground Railroad passageway once used…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14408,9,24,55,54,56,55958],"class_list":["post-177386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-merchants-house-museum","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-underground-railroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}