Underground Railroad Memorial - Maywood, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 53.314 W 087° 49.996
16T E 430870 N 4637738
The Original Ten Mile Freedom House stood at this location, now memorialized by symbolic sculptural representation of shackles & rail and a plaque.
Waymark Code: WM9Y84
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 10/15/2010
Views: 3
The memorialized structure (see website below for photo) served as a freedom station for slaves during the Underground Railroad era in the 1800's. It was located at Lake Street along the bank of the Des Plaines River near 1st Ave in Maywood. The West Town Museum (nearby at 104 South 5th Avenue) helped sponsor the memorial and also features informative exhibits about this site, the Underground Railroad, and the slavery era within the museum galleries. Sculptural symbolic representation of escaping from the chains of slavery bondage and entering the mysterious journey of the underground railroad to freedom is one feature of the Memorial.
Inscription on the plaque:
"Many black slaves fled from the antebellum south and gained their freedom by secretly traveling through the "Underground Railroad" route during the mid 1800s. A "Ten Mile Freedom House" providing shelter for the "Underground Railroad" travelers stood on this site in that era. It was razed in 1927. The memorial symbolically represents the escape from the chains of slavery, the journey through the Underground railroad and he arrival in this new land of liberty and opportunity. It recognizes the Freedom House site and is dedicated to the men and women who courageously participated in the Underground railroad freedom quest.
If ya' wanna be free, keep a goin'...Harriet Tubman
Dedicated December 2000
Made possible by McDonalds Corp and RJ Nelson Enterprises with the cooperation of the Village of Maywood and the Operation Uplift West Town Museum of Cultural History."
Park at nearby McDonalds and grab a nearby geocache as well.
Address:
Located on Lake St. at the Des Plaines River Bridge
Maywood, IL USA
Web site: [Web Link]
Site Details: parking at nearby McDonalds
Open to the public?: Public
Name of organization who placed the marker: Operation Uplift West Town Museum of Cultural History
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