{"id":696,"slug":"mary-ann-shadd-cary-house-washington-d-c","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The brick rowhouse at 1421 W Street NW was the last home of the woman who did everything first. Mary Ann Shadd Cary — born free in slave-state Delaware in 1823, raised in a household that hid fugitives — was the first Black newspaperwoman in North America, publishing Canada's anti-slavery Provincial Freeman from 1853 while hiding her editorship from a profession that wouldn't have credited a woman. Her own people called her 'the Rebel.'","Her life ran across every border the nineteenth century drew. The Fugitive Slave Act drove her to Canada in 1850, where she wrote the emigration pamphlet and ran the Freeman urging Black Americans north. She came back to recruit for the Union Army — one of the war's few Black recruiting officers — then settled in Washington, enrolled in Howard's first law class, taught by day and studied by night for sixteen years, and took her law degree in 1883 at the age of sixty.","In the W Street years — 1881 to 1885 — she was still working: writing for the New National Era, testifying before Congress on the 14th and 15th Amendments while objecting publicly that the text wasn't gender-neutral, and founding the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association when the suffrage movement wouldn't organize for Black women. She died in 1893 and was buried in Columbian Harmony Cemetery — a cemetery later paved over, her grave lost, her rowhouse the landmark that remains.","The Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is the archive's rebel file — the U Street rowhouse where the first Black woman editor, recruiter, and one of the first Black women lawyers spent her last working years between Howard and the Hill."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is the archive's U Street file — the Washington rowhouse of the woman who ran Canada's first anti-slavery paper, recruited for the Union, and earned a law degree at sixty — a National Historic Landmark for a life of firsts.","A rowhouse that held the Rebel keeps its address — the file's suggestion being that Shadd Cary's hold is the permanence her grave was denied: Columbian Harmony was paved, but the W Street house still stands."]}],"name":"Mary Ann Shadd Cary 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":"Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is a historic site in Washington, Washington, D.C., a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. The archive files it under dark history, Underground Railroad history and the Underground Railroad. The dossier holds 2 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. Access is restricted — check current rules before planning anything.","address":"1421 W. St., N.W.,","city":"Washington","county":"Washington D.C.","state":"Washington, D.C.","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":38.904243,"lon":-77.016524,"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 05DC01, source row 107. 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. Mary Ann Shadd Cary House's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","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":"Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. '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":"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 Cary house—where the editor lived.","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 05DC01, source row 107. 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 4; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Mary Ann Shadd Cary House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ann_Shadd_Cary_House","desc":"Historic house in Washington, D.C., United States","extract":"The Mary Ann Shadd Cary House is a historic residence located at 1421 W Street, Northwest in Washington, D.C. From 1881 to 1893, it was the home of Mary Ann Shadd Cary (1823–93), a writer and abolitionist who was one of the first African American female journalists in North America, and who became one of the first black female lawyers after the American Civil War. As part of a national effort by the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation, the house was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 8, 1976, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also is a contributing property to the Greater U Street Historic District and the African American Heritage Trail in Wash","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Mary_Ann_Shadd_Cary_House_-_Washington%2C_D.C.jpg/330px-Mary_Ann_Shadd_Cary_House_-_Washington%2C_D.C.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":93,"lat":38.91916667,"lon":-77.03277778},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":2,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}