Riverview Farm site (Arlington Cemetery) - Drexel Hill, PA
N 39° 57.343 W 075° 17.766
18S E 474708 N 4422884
The remains of Riverview Farm, a stop on the Underground Railroad run by Quaker abolitionist Thomas Garrett and his brothers.
Waymark Code: WMM0GE
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 06/27/2014
Views: 3
Riverview Farm, owned by the Garrett family, was not only a major estate in Delaware County in the 1800s, but also a stop on the Underground Railroad. The farm buildings were torn down in 1969 when the property was sold to various developers. In 1895, part of the property, belonging to Isaac Garrett, Thomas's brother, had been sold to become Arlington Cemetery. The cemetery is the last remaining intact part of Riverview Farm open to the public, and it is this part of the farm that has been recognized by the National Park Serviceas part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
From the marker at the cemetery office: "Thomas Garrett, a prominent abolitionist and station master on the Underground Railroad, was born in 1789 at Riverview Farm. Here he came face to face with the tenuous existence of African Americans living under the oppressive slave system when a free black woman in the employ of the household was kidnapped to be sold into slavery. His participation in her rescue opened his eyes to the horrors of slavery by assisting over 2,700 individuals seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad from his base in Wilmington, Delaware.
"Garrett also sent 'freedom seekers' to his family in Upper Darby. He was eventually caught, prosecuted, and fined in 1848 under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Garrett not only survived his fine, but helped more runaways than ever. 'Esteemed friend,' he later wrote to William Still in Philadelphia, 'this is my 69th birthday, and I do not know any better way to celebrate it in a way to accord with my feelings, than to send to thee two fugitives, a man and wife.'"
The coordinates are for the entrance to the cemetery office, where the marker is displayed just within the doors. (It was originally outside but was moved inside since the cemetery is sometimes a target of vandals.) There is also a pamphlet available (pictured). On the property is also the home of Isaac Garrett, Fernland Farm, part of Riverview Farm, the former cemetery office, and presumably where escaped slaves were brought. It is not open to the public and is used by the cemetery for storage.
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