{"id":643,"slug":"edwin-w-clarke-house-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Edwin and Charlotte Clarke House stands at East Seventh and Mohawk in Oswego — the brick Italianate the abolitionist couple completed in 1859, in the lake city that was the Underground Railroad's last American stop before Canada. Oswego's network was unusually integrated: fugitive businessmen ran barbershops downtown, abolitionist merchants owned the buildings, and families like the Clarkes opened their homes.","The Clarkes were prominent in the county's antislavery work, and their house is believed to have served as a way station — the National Register listing and the Network to Freedom both record the association. Oswego's position made it valuable: the harbor on Lake Ontario put Canada within a boat ride, and the city's documented network — the Clarkes, the Buckhout-Jones block, the Littlefield house, the Starr Clark tin shop — formed a whole urban system of assistance in a single town.","The house survives as part of that documented cluster — Oswego County has one of the densest concentrations of Network to Freedom listings in New York, and the Clarke house is part of the streetscape where the final stretch of the Railroad ran to the harbor.","The Clarke House is the archive's lake-crossing file — the abolitionist home in the port where the Railroad's passengers were one boat ride from Canada, in the city that organized its antislavery work as a whole-town network."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Edwin W. Clarke House is the archive's last-stop file — the 1859 Italianate home of Oswego abolitionists believed to have sheltered freedom seekers at the Lake Ontario harbor that was the final jump to Canada.","A station at the last stop keeps its harbor view — the file's suggestion being that the Clarke House's hold is the proximity: the house blocks from the water where the fugitives it sheltered boarded for the crossing that ended the journey."]}],"name":"Edwin W. Clarke House","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"A historic site in Rome, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Edwin W. Clarke House is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. It sits in the archive under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. Access is restricted, and the file says so plainly.","address":"80 E. Mohawk St.","city":"Rome","county":"Oswego","state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":43.226002,"lon":-75.489523,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"RESTRICTED","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: No. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.","ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 02NY04, source row 39. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":62.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.35,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The record appears in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Edwin W. Clarke House is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"The house’s UGRR role is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access is restricted; check with the managing agency or landowner before visiting; check nps.gov for current hours and alerts.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01","url":"https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/sortable_dataset/undergroundrailroad/F0E29766-00A1-12E5-C3D062151C3F7E26/nri-NTFListings6426NOPIItable.csv?t=1784017173223","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"NPS Network to Freedom listing","url":"https://www.nps.gov/subjects/ugrr/index.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Underground Railroad","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Railroad","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","incoming_value":"The Rome house—the Clarke family’s station.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"public_access","existing_value":"RESTRICTED","incoming_value":"PUBLIC","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"historic_designation","existing_value":"National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing","incoming_value":"NPS Network to Freedom","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 02NY04, source row 39. Inclusion concerns slavery, freedom-seeking and resistance history; no haunting is inferred. City, coordinates and detailed history are not inferred from the name. The source Year Established field is not treated as year built/opened. ","incoming_value":"UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Edwin W. and Charlotte Clarke House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_W._and_Charlotte_Clarke_House","desc":"Historic house in New York, United States","extract":"Edwin W. and Charlotte Clarke House is a historic home located at Oswego in Oswego County, New York. It is a 2+1⁄2-story brick Italianate style residence built in 1857. Edwin W. and Charlotte Clarke were prominent abolitionists and it is believed that the house was a way station on the Underground Railroad.","img":null,"score":78,"lat":43.45666667,"lon":-76.50055556},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}