{"id":665,"slug":"orson-ames-house-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Orson Ames House sheltered the most famous fugitive in America for one night. On October 1, 1851, federal marshals seized William 'Jerry' Henry in Syracuse — a barrel maker who had escaped Missouri slavery, arrested under the new Fugitive Slave Act while a Liberty Party convention filled the city with abolitionists. That evening the convention broke into the jail and carried him out — the Jerry Rescue, the act of open defiance that proved the federal government could not reliably enforce the law in the North. His shackles came off at a blacksmith's; after four days hidden, he was moved to Mexico, New York, in a meat wagon.","Orson Ames — Mexico's wealthiest abolitionist, a tanner and manufacturer who had signed the county's first antislavery petition and joined its Vigilance Committee in 1838 — took Henry in for the night of October 5. Just one night: the house stood on Main Street, too close to the business district to be safe. The committee moved Jerry next to Asa and Mary Beebe's barn in secluded Toad Hollow, where he hid for two weeks, then to Oswego and a boat to Kingston, Ontario — Canada, and freedom.","Ames wrote to his brother in Oswego to arrange the boat — the paper trail that documents the route. The house at 3339 Main is the only surviving property marking where Jerry hid on his escape — the one-night shelter in the chain that carried the rescued man to Canada.","The Orson Ames House is the archive's Jerry file — the Mexico farmhouse where the fugitive rescued from a Syracuse jail spent his first documented night on the route to Canada, the only building left from the escape that embarrassed the Fugitive Slave Act."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Orson Ames House is the archive's one-night file — the Mexico, New York house where William 'Jerry' Henry slept on October 5, 1851, days after the Jerry Rescue broke him out of federal custody, the sole surviving site of his documented route to Canada.","A house that hid a rescued man one night keeps its night — the file's suggestion being that the Ames House's hold is October 5, 1851: the single documented night in the chain of shelters that carried Jerry Henry from a Syracuse jail to Kingston, Ontario."]}],"name":"Orson Ames 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 Oswego, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Orson Ames House is filed here for what the record attaches to it. NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad. HauntHunt files it with 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":"3339 Main Street","city":null,"county":"Oswego","state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":43.42844,"lon":-76.20926,"coord_kind":"COUNTY","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 03NY02, source row 67. 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 record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. Sources including 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","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":"Orson Ames House is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. Orson Ames House's past is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer the museum itself interprets. 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 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. The record appears in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","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 Ames house—the 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 03NY02, source row 67. 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":"Orson Ames House","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Ames_House","desc":"Historic house in New York, United States","extract":"The Orson Ames House is a historic house located at 3339 Main Street in Mexico, New York.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2e/Old_Orson_Ames_House.jpg/960px-Old_Orson_Ames_House.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":89,"lat":43.45972222,"lon":-76.23527778},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}