{"id":762,"slug":"stephen-and-harriet-myers-residence-new-york","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Myers Residence was the Vigilance Committee's office — the Greek Revival row house at 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany where Stephen and Harriet Myers, Black abolitionists both born into slavery, ran the committee that assisted hundreds of freedom seekers through the 1850s. The documentation is exceptional: a surviving Vigilance Committee flyer records assistance to 287 people in a ten-month period — including sixteen who passed through on a single day, July 13, 1856 — and gives the address as the Myers house.","Sydney Howard Gay's Record of Fugitives — the Manhattan editor's ledger of the escapees he forwarded north — lists fifty people directed to Stephen Myers by name. Benjamin Wilson got money and instructions to find Myers; Catherine Brice's story passed through William Still's records. The Jay family — John Jay's descendants — corresponded with the Myerses and sent them both fugitives and money. Stephen Myers was also a newspaper editor, a suffrage activist, and a man who sued the Albany school district — the Underground Railroad's chairman ran a full civil-rights portfolio.","The house itself was built by an African American shipowner, John Johnson, in 1847 — Black capital funding the building that became the Black committee's headquarters. It survived a century and a half of private ownership and neglect before the Underground Railroad Education Center bought it in 2004 and began restoring it to its 1850s state — the most intact Vigilance Committee office left in the country.","The Myers Residence is the archive's headquarters file — the Albany house where the Vigilance Committee met and 287 documented assists were recorded, run by a Black abolitionist couple on a street less than a mile from the Hudson."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence is the archive's committee file — the Albany Greek Revival house that was the Vigilance Committee's mid-1850s office, where the flyer documents 287 assists and Gay's Record of Fugitives names fifty people sent to Myers's door.","A committee office keeps its ledger — the file's suggestion being that the Myers house's hold is the paperwork: the flyer and the journal that name the freedom seekers by name, in the house built by a Black shipowner and run by a Black committee."]}],"name":"Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence","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":"Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence is a historic site in Albany, New York, 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 3 documented facts — the record is history-forward, no paranormal claims on file. The site is open to visitors.","address":"194 Livingston Avenue","city":"Albany","county":"Albany","state":"New York","postal":null,"region":"Northeast","lat":42.665745,"lon":-73.798353,"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 09NY02, source row 202. 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. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","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":"Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence 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. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","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 Myerses’ work is documented. Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence'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 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. 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":"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 Albany station—where the Myerses ran the northern newspaper and the route.","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 09NY02, source row 202. 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":"Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_and_Harriet_Myers_Residence","desc":"Historic house in New York, United States","extract":"The Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence is located on Livingston Avenue in Albany, New York, United States. It is a Greek Revival townhouse built in the mid-19th century. In 2004, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also listed on the New York State Underground Railroad Heritage Trail and is a site on the National Park Service's National Network to Freedom.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Meyersresidence-600x980.jpg/330px-Meyersresidence-600x980.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":93,"lat":42.66083333,"lon":-73.75416667},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":3}}