TUCKED AWAY IN THE CORNER of the Mount Zion Cemetery in the hills above Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek, an unassuming outbuilding may have been a waystation on the Underground Railroad. It’s one of many Black history sites in the District nearly lost to midcentury redevelopment.
UCKED AWAY IN THE CORNER of the Mount Zion Cemetery in the hills above Washington, D.C.’s Rock Creek, an unassuming outbuilding may have been a waystation on the Underground Railroad. It’s one of many Black history sites in the District nearly lost to midcentury redevelopment.
The hiding spot is a eight-foot-by-eight-foot windowless brick structure that was once used for wintertime corpse storage when the ground was too hard for digging. To have spent the night in such horrifying proximity to human-filled coffins speaks to the desperation that enslaved people must have felt for freedom.
Because of the clandestine nature of the Underground Railroad there is no written record of enslaved people sheltering at Mount Zion. Still, oral histories passed down through generations of Georgetown’s Black community have kept the site’s significance alive.
The hiding spot is a eight-foot-by-eight-foot windowless brick structure that was once used for wintertime corpse storage when the ground was too hard for digging. To have spent the night in such horrifying proximity to human-filled coffins speaks to the desperation that enslaved people must have felt for freedom.
Because of the clandestine nature of the Underground Railroad there is no written record of enslaved people sheltering at Mount Zion. Still, oral histories passed down through generations of Georgetown’s Black community have kept the site’s significance alive.
Link Texthttps://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mount-zion-cemeterys-underground-railroad-shelter
Location:2501 Mill Rd NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States