THINGS TO DO

Here you will learn about the history behind this historic site in an orientation video. Afterwards, tour the building (Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) to learn even more about the Coffins’ role in helping thousands find their way to freedom.

Enjoy a guided tour of the actual home where the Coffins housed so many freedom-seekers. Inside you’ll find unique features like a basement kitchen, a spring-fed well in the basement, and large attic and storage garrets on the side of the rear room that served as convenient hiding places.

Lay your head in a mock false-bottom wagon to hear sounds of what it would have been like hiding in one of these escape tools. Try to lift a cotton bale, and learn about how slaves worked about one week to pick enough cotton for one bale.

Escaping slaves were well hidden for their travels in wagons like this one, equipped with false-bottoms and used to transport freedom-seekers to the next safe house.

Eileen Baker-Wall grew up in Fountain City and has been a longtime volunteer at the site. The shoe she is holding belonged to her great-great grandfather William Bush. Stories of her grandfather were passed down in her family, ones that tell of William’s escape from slavery in North Carolina, sometime in the 1840s. According to family stories, part of William’s escape included hiding inside a wooden crate that was supposedly shipped to Levi Coffin in Newport (now Fountain City).