Slocum and Hannah Howland House
A historic site in Sherwood, New York, a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing, Slocum and Hannah Howland 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.
NPS public listing access field: No. This is a listing snapshot; current arrangements still require confirmation.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Slocum and Hannah Howland House haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
The Slocum and Hannah Howland House was the best-documented safe house in Cayuga County — and it no longer stands. Slocum Howland was the Quaker merchant of Sherwood, New York, whose cobblestone store anchored the hamlet's trading economy and whose abolitionism ran through a Quaker network reaching to southeastern Pennsylvania. He didn't just shelter freedom seekers passing through — he helped at least four African American families settle in Sherwood itself, finding them homes and work, and built schools for Black children.
The Phillips family is the story that survives. Herman and Hannah Phillips came out of Maryland slavery in 1843 with their four children — Herman followed a vision: a place with an orchard, a stone store, and a man crossing the road who would be his friend. The man was Howland; the orchard and the store were Sherwood. They stayed first in Howland's tenant house, then built their own snug house with their own earnings — the Phillips house still stands on Route 34B, down the road from the store museum.
The Howlands' own house — the 1830s building on Sherwood Road, listed on the National Register in 2006 on the strength of Judith Wellman's documentation — stood empty under absentee ownership for decades and collapsed in 2016. The site is a modular home now. The listing couldn't save it; the record of what happened there outlives the building it happened in.
The Howland House is the archive's cautionary file — Cayuga County's best-documented safe house, where Herman Phillips's vision found its stone store and its friend, collapsed in 2016 while the families it settled still stand in the district it made.
Why this file matters
The Slocum and Hannah Howland House is the archive's collapsed file — Sherwood's best-documented Underground Railroad station, where the Quaker merchant settled the Phillips family and others, listed in 2006 and collapsed in 2016 — proof that the register doesn't save the building.
A documented station that collapsed keeps its record — the file's suggestion being that the Howland House's hold is the warning: the best-proven safe house in the county gone to a modular home, while the cobblestone store down the road still tells its story.
The Slocum and Hannah Howland House is located at 1781 Sherwood Road in the hamlet of Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York. It was one of the most active Underground Railroad stations in New York.
Slocum and Hannah Howland HouseTwo accounts on file
NPS-listed historic site associated with the Underground Railroad.
The Sherwood house—the Howlands’ station.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
RESTRICTED
PUBLIC
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom listing
NPS Network to Freedom
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 12NY04, source row 257. 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.
UGRR enrichment wave 2; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Documented history
NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Slocum and Hannah Howland 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. 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.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceSlocum and Hannah Howland 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. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyNational Park ServiceThe house’s UGRR role is documented. Slocum and Hannah Howland 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. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sources on file
- 01Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01National Park Service · government · A1
- 02NPS Network to Freedom listingNational Park Service · government · A1
- 03Underground RailroadWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Government-registry discovery record, unique ID 12NY04, source row 257. 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.