William H. Griffitts House | |
Nearest city | Greenback, Tennessee |
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Coordinates | 35°40′25″N84°13′39″W / 35.6737°N 84.2275°W |
Area | 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) |
Built | 1854 |
Architectural style | East Tennessee vernacular |
NRHP reference No. | 89000141 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 2, 1989 |
The William H. Griffitts House is a historic farmhouse on Jackson Ferry Road in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States, northwest of Greenback and near the edge of Tellico Lake. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house, which was completed in 1854 (when its site was part of Blount County, Tennessee), is a two-story wooden frame farmhouse with nine rooms arranged in an ell-shaped layout. [2] It is a vernacular design that exhibits Federal influences in its three-bay front facade and pedimented front entrance. [3] The house has five fireplaces. [2] [3]
The owner of the house, William H. Griffitts, was born in 1825 into one of the Quaker families that had arrived in Blount County around 1800 and settled in the Unitia and Friendsville areas. He and his wife, Lucy Ann Burton, were the parents of seven children. [2]
With other Quakers in the local area, the Griffitts family were active supporters of the Underground Railroad movement that aided fugitive African-American slaves attempting to reach freedom in the northern United States. [2] Historians identify the Griffitts house and the nearby Friendsville and Unitia communities as "stations" on the Underground Railroad. [4] [5] During the American Civil War, they also sheltered white Southern men seeking to avoid military conscription by the Confederacy. [4]
During the Civil War, William Griffitts had conscientious objector status due to his Quaker religious faith. In lieu of military service, he worked in a salt mine in Kentucky. His wife and teenaged son managed the farm and household during his absence. After the war, the Griffitts family allowed former slaves to live on a portion of their property that is still known locally as Negro Hollow. [2]
The property remained in the Griffitts family until 1960, and Griffitts descendants lived in the house until 1943. [2] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 as the result of efforts by Larry Benson, who purchased it in 1978 and did extensive restoration and renovation work. Architect Eugene Burr drafted the National Register nomination materials. [2] [3]
Loudon County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is located in the central part of East Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 54,886. Its county seat is Loudon. Loudon County is included in the Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Friendsville is a city in Blount County, Tennessee. Its population was 896 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Greenback is a city in Loudon County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was at 1,102, according to the 2020 census. It is included in the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Thomas Garrett was an American abolitionist and leader in the Underground Railroad movement before the American Civil War. He helped more than 2,500 African Americans escape slavery.
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The Coffin House is a National Historic Landmark located in the present-day town of Fountain City in Wayne County, Indiana. The two-story, eight room, brick home was constructed circa 1838–39 in the Federal style. The Coffin home became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad because of its location where three of the escape routes to the North converged and the number of fleeing slaves who passed through it.
The F. Julius LeMoyne House is a historic house museum at 49 East Maiden Street in Washington, Pennsylvania. Built in 1812, it was the home of Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne (1798–1897), an antislavery activist who used it as a stop on the Underground Railroad. LeMoyne also assisted in the education of freed slaves after the American Civil War, founding the historically black LeMoyne–Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee. His house, now operated as a museum by the local historical society, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997. It is designated as a historic public landmark by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.
Rokeby Museum is a historic farm property and museum at 4334 United States Route 7 in Ferrisburgh, Vermont. The 90-acre (36 ha) property includes a 1780s farmstead, and eight agricultural outbuildings with permanent exhibits. Hiking trails cover more than 50 acres (20 ha) of the grounds. Rokeby is open from mid-May to mid-October each year. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 for its association with Rowland T. Robinson, a Quaker and ardent abolitionist who openly sheltered escaped slaves at Rokeby as part of the Underground Railroad. Robinson's extensive correspondence is an essential archive giving insight into the practices of abolitionists and the operations of the railroad.
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Ercildoun, population about 100, is an unincorporated community in East Fallowfield Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The hamlet was founded by Quakers and was an early center of the abolitionist movement. In 1985 the entire hamlet, including 31 properties, was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Of these properties two were vacant land, 14 were significant buildings, ten were contributing buildings, and five buildings, built in the 1950s, were non-contributing. The Lukens Pierce House, an octagon house listed separately on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, is located about half a mile northwest of the hamlet. Ercildoun is one of about ten hamlets in the township, which has no cities or towns, but has 31 sites listed on the National Register. It is one of the larger hamlets, located near the center of the township, and historically among the best known. The city of Coatesville is about 3 miles north.
The Underground Railroad in Indiana was part of a larger, unofficial, and loosely-connected network of groups and individuals who aided and facilitated the escape of runaway slaves from the southern United States. The network in Indiana gradually evolved in the 1830s and 1840s, reached its peak during the 1850s, and continued until slavery was abolished throughout the United States at the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It is not known how many fugitive slaves escaped through Indiana on their journey to Michigan and Canada. An unknown number of Indiana's abolitionists, anti-slavery advocates, and people of color, as well as Quakers and other religious groups illegally operated stations along the network. Some of the network's operatives have been identified, including Levi Coffin, the best-known of Indiana's Underground Railroad leaders. In addition to shelter, network agents provided food, guidance, and, in some cases, transportation to aid the runaways.
The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) is the State Historic Preservation Office for the U.S. state of Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, it is an independent state agency, administratively attached to the Department of Environment and Conservation. Its mission is to protect, preserve, interpret, maintain, and administer historic places; to encourage the inclusive diverse study of Tennessee's history for the benefit of future generations; to mark important locations, persons, and events in Tennessee history; to assist in worthy publication projects; to review, comment on and identify projects that will potentially impact historic properties; to locate, identify, record, and nominate to the National Register of Historic Places all properties which meet National Register criteria, and to implement other programs of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 as amended. The Tennessee Historical Commission also refers to the entity consisting of 24 Governor-appointed members and five ex officio members.
William Parker was an American former slave who escaped from Maryland to Pennsylvania, where he became an abolitionist and anti-slavery activist in Christiana. He was a farmer and led a black self-defense organization. He was notable as a principal figure in the Christiana incident, 1851, also known as the Christiana Resistance. Edward Gorsuch, a Maryland slaveowner who owned four slaves who had fled over the state border to Parker's farm, was killed and other white men in the party to capture the fugitives were wounded. The events brought national attention to the challenges of enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
Sherwood Equal Rights Historic District is a national historic district located at Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York. The district consists of 29 properties containing 27 contributing primary buildings, one contributing site (cemetery), three contributing carriage houses and one non-contributing building in the historic core of the hamlet of Sherwood. It encompasses the entire hamlet and includes several commercial / civic structures at the intersection of New York State Route 34B and Sherwod Road. The structures commemorate the historical Quaker community's dedication to abolition, women's rights, and education.
Maden Hall Farm, also called the Fermanagh-Ross Farm, is a historic farm near the U.S. city of Greeneville, Tennessee. Established in the 1820s, the farmstead consists of a farmhouse and six outbuildings situated on the remaining 17 acres (6.9 ha) of what was once a 300-acre (120 ha) antebellum farm. Maden Hall has been designated a century farm and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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