The Interpretive Center is next door to the original Levi Coffin House, which was known as the “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad. The displays do not sugar-coat the realities of slavery that included lashings and shackles.

Text and Photos
By Rod King
Guest Columnist

Levi Coffin House in Fountain City, known in the mid-1800s as the “Grand Central Station” of the Underground Railroad, is the place to learn how Levi and Catherine Coffin helped freedom seekers escape slavery.

The state has constructed a hands-on interpretive center next door to the original brick house, which symbolizes and celebrates the spirit and courage of the freedom seekers and the 19th century anti-slavery activists.

More than 2,000 fugitive slaves (freedom seekers) came to the two-story, red-brick house in Newport (now Fountain City) on their way north. They were concealed, fed, clothed and transported to the next stop on what the Coffins referred to as the “mysterious road.”

Quakers Levi and Catherine Coffin came to Indiana from North Carolina because of their opposition to slavery. Their home in Newport (now Fountain City), which was built in 1883, was a sanctuary for “freedom seekers” for 20 years.

The Quaker couple came to Indiana in 1826 because they opposed slavery. He jokingly called himself the “President of the Underground Railroad.” The house is not only a state historic site, but is also a registered National Historic Landmark. Indiana purchased it in 1967, and some restoration was done by the Wayne County Historical Society. It was operated on a shoe-string budget by the Levi Coffin House Association. Sisters, Sandra Jackson and Janice McGuire, literally kept it going and saved it from becoming a gas station. Construction of the $3.8 million interpretive center started in 2015.

Visitors will be seated in a simulated Quaker Friends Meeting House (church) for a 10-minute orientation film about the decisions made by freedom seekers and the Coffins. It provides an overview in preparation for touring the center and the Coffin House. Stories are told through dynamic exhibits prompting visitors to consider how they would respond if they found themselves in similar situations.

One of the stories focuses on a pair of hand-carved wooden shoes which belonged to fugitive slave William Bush who, after reaching the Coffin’s, decided to stay in town. He became a blacksmith and helped other runaways. He won the town’s gratitude during an epidemic because he dared to bury the dead in nearby Willow Grove Cemetery. His marker is there and reads he assisted slaves fleeing bondage.

His great-great-granddaughter, Eileen Baker Wall, grew up in Fountain City, taught school in Richmond, became an assistant high school principal, returned to the community and now volunteers at the house conducting tours. She relates how rare it was for a slave to settle in a community, how he assisted the Coffins and how her great-aunt preserved his wooden shoes.

Presentation of the dark side of slavery is not sugar-coated. Shackles are displayed, photos show the results of lashings and the subject of profit and loss in slavery is thoroughly covered. King Cotton, blacks in the military, slave ships, the free labor store and the false-bottom wagon used by the Coffins to transport freedom seekers are highlighted. Maps show the three Underground Railroad routes taken by slaves entering Indiana from Kentucky. Not surprisingly, they all went near free black communities.

Fountain City and the Coffin Interpretive Center is located right on US 27 just seven miles south of Lynn. There’s no big sign, so look for the red brick house. Park behind the white Interpretive Center. Admission is adults, $10; seniors, $8; and children, $5.

For more information, visit indianamuseum.org/historic-sites/levi-catharine-coffin-house.