Landmark Cleveland-area building to become a museum honoring the Underground Railroad

A historic Cleveland-area building will be saved, and the region will gain a new cultural institution, with the creation of a museum dedicated to the Underground Railroad and the region's African American community in Oberlin, a community whose progressive and humanitarian credentials date back to its foundation.


The Underground Railroad is the name given to the informal network of secret routes and safe houses created by people to help fugitive slaves from the southern United States to freedom in Canada in the decades prior to the Civil War. This work was dangerous for all involved, as Federal law required that the free states in the North cooperate with returning slave-owners' "property".


The Underground Railroad is a testimony to the courage of hundreds of men and women to disobey an unjust law to defend the principles of liberty and human dignity, and the bravery of the tens of thousands of slaves who risked their lives to obtain freedom. 

From the Morning Journal:

OBERLIN — One of Oberlin’s historic landmark buildings is being renovated into a Underground Railroad museum. The Gasholder building [originally a gas storage facility], located behind the McDonald’s at 265 S. Main St., will be the home of the museum.

The 1889 structure was a perfect fit for the project according to Assistant City Manager Darlene Colaso. The building was set for demolition when the owners, the Clark Brothers, donated the land and the building to the city. There was one stipulation, the citizens had to come up with a way to use the land.

It took a couple of years but someone finally suggested an Underground Railroad museum. According to Colaso it fit as the city had deep roots with the railroad. Oberlin was the last stops in before finding freedom in Canada. While the Gasholder building didn’t house those seeking freedom, the surrounding area did.

It was decided that the building would pay homage to the railroad as well as the African-American community.

[...]

The renovation of the building will be done in three stages. The first one will be completed this summer when the roof is replaced. The second stage involves refinishing the outside, as Colaso said they will be fixing the bricks and covering over a door that was put it for storage reasons. The final stage will be the interior.

The gasholder building is one of the only ones [of its type] left, as Mealy said the closest one is in Vermont. “It’s a unique way to reuse (the building) in this manner,” Colaso said. The building will be open on June 17 from 4. to 6 p.m.