AKRF had to do some dances to try to disprove that the Duffield Street Abolitionist homes never sheltered escaped slaves. Nobody denies that well-known Abolitionists lived there, and one neighborhood reporter, Walt Whitman, wrote about an escaped slave coming to his home in Leaves of Grass.
For some reason, AKRF found it problematic that the buildings communicated- which in this case means that there were underground tunnels connecting them. Various sources, including NoLandGrab.org report that the 2007 AKRF report published an 1855 map of Duffield, but left out the key to the map. Even though AKRF spent 2 1/2 years researching the Duffield Street history, they failed to h
ire an architect to study the site, even though they have one on staff.Despite AKRF's denials, it certainly looks to me that the basement of 227 Duffield used to have a passageway connecting it to 225 Duffield. I have posted images and a video that show that most of the basement was constructed with stone, except for a small portion on the front part of the northern wall.
For photos, click here.
For the video, click here.
