{"id":1078,"slug":"lewis-and-harriet-hayden-house-massachusetts","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Hayden House was the Temple of Refuge — the Beacon Hill boardinghouse at 66 Phillips Street where two people who had escaped Kentucky slavery ran the most documented safe house in Boston. Lewis Hayden had watched his siblings sold away as a child and lost his first wife and two sons to the auction block; he and Harriet escaped in 1844 with flour rubbed on their faces to pass as white, helped by Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster — who were caught and imprisoned for the rescue. The Haydens reached Canada, then deliberately returned to run the station.","The Vigilance Committee's account book is the documentation — entries record Hayden boarding fugitives by name: 'John Simmons, W. Miller, Ja. Jackson, Solomon Bander, Geo. Reason, Issac Mason & Wife'; fares to Canada for 'Taylor and Cooper'; clothes for Henry Demby. The 1850 census listed thirteen in the household — including William and Ellen Craft, the famous fugitive couple. Harriet ran the boardinghouse and the danger; Lewis ran the rescue operations — the courthouse rescue of Shadrach Minkins in 1851, the attempted rescue of Anthony Burns in 1854, and John Brown himself slept there in 1859 while planning Harpers Ferry.","Lewis recruited for the 54th Massachusetts during the war and sat in the Massachusetts legislature after it — the escaped slave who had been hunted under federal law ended up making law in the statehouse on the other side of Beacon Hill. The house is still a private residence on the Black Heritage Trail — the building where the most documented Underground Railroad household in Boston operated under the fugitive slave law it was defying.","The Hayden House is the archive's temple-of-refuge file — the boardinghouse where the Vigilance Committee's ledger records the fugitives by name, where the Crafts and John Brown slept, run by two people who had escaped slavery and come back to run the station."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Lewis and Harriet Hayden House is the archive's ledger file — the Beacon Hill boardinghouse where the Boston Vigilance Committee's account book documents the sheltered by name, where the Minkins and Burns rescues were organized, and where John Brown stayed in 1859.","A safe house with an account book keeps its names — the file's suggestion being that the Hayden House's hold is the documentation: the fugitives recorded in the committee's ledger, in the house run by a couple who had escaped Kentucky and returned to break the law that had broken their family."]}],"name":"Lewis and Harriet Hayden House","aliases":[],"type":"HISTORIC_SITE","type_label":"Historic Site","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD_HISTORY","AFRICAN_AMERICAN_HISTORY","HISTORIC_SITE","UNDERGROUND_RAILROAD","CIVIL_RIGHTS"],"groups":["dark-history","historic-sites"],"desc":"NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.","full_desc":"Lewis and Harriet Hayden House is a historic site in Boston, Massachusetts, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. 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 — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"66 Phillips Street","city":"Boston","county":null,"state":"Massachusetts","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":42.338551,"lon":-71.018253,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":"NPS public listing access field: Yes. 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 41MA01, source row 638. 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. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01' documents the entry. The record keeps it — history, not lore.","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":"Lewis and Harriet Hayden 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. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. 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 Haydens’ work is documented. Lewis and Harriet Hayden House's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","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":"Historic site; verify hours and access with the managing agency 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 Beacon Hill house—where the Haydens sheltered the fugitives and planned John Brown’s raid.","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 41MA01, source row 638. 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 3; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Lewis and Harriet Hayden House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Harriet_Hayden_House","desc":"Historic abolitionists' house in Boston","extract":"Lewis and Harriet Hayden House was the home of African-American abolitionists who had escaped from slavery in Kentucky; it is located in Beacon Hill, Boston. They maintained the home as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and the Haydens were visited by Harriet Beecher Stowe as research for her book, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Lewis Hayden was an important leader in the African-American community of Boston; in addition, he lectured as an abolitionist and was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, which resisted the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Lewis_and_Harriet_Hayden_House_%2854958732271%29.jpg/960px-Lewis_and_Harriet_Hayden_House_%2854958732271%29.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":67},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}