Underground Railroad Education Center

Incredible historic site. Do the tour - you'll learn more than you could imagine about local abolitionists and the huge role they played in the journey to freedom for so many that passed through the Albany area.

I really enjoyed my time at the Underground Railroad History Project in the Capital Region. My tour was great, I learned so much about the history of African Americans within Albany, how the Underground operated within the North, and how important Stephen and Harriett Myers were to the cause. I have really enjoyed working at the Museum, everyone has been so kind and encouraging. I have been able to continue learning more about collections. Please come and stop by, take a tour and learn. If you can please volunteer for this amazing organization.

A most rewarding stop on our tour of the capital region. The Stewarts are doing a wonderful job of making history come alive for young people and involving others in preserving the Myers home and the history of the Underground Railway. Really enjoyed our time exploring the home and surrounding gardens.

I would recommend that anyone who is in the Albany area please stop by this historical site. Mary Liz & Paul Stewart are a wonderful couple who engage you & help transport you back in time!! My family & I learned so much & walked away with a great appreciation for all their hard work & dedication towards the restoration of this site.

A review should be done by an impartial person and I am not impartial - but I would like to say that this project is an outstanding example of volunteers stepping forward to help reclaim an old building and recognize it as an historic site in relation to the history that is part of the building. The restoration of the building called the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence is a real testimony to what people can do when each puts their shoulder to the wheel even just a little.

The building at 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany was built in 1847 by John Johnson, an African American boat captain. He let his sister Harriet and her husband, Stephen, live there with their four children in the mid-1850s and since every place where Stephen and Harriet lived was a center for anti-slavery activism. So the location was the office of the Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad in the region. In those days the address was 198 Lumber Street. The street name and number have changed but the building still stands.

Today the building in being restored by the members and volunteers of Underground Railroad History Project. The project has made the residence into a historic site where the story of Stephen and Harriet and the Underground Railroad is retold and where meetings and community events take place.

Underground Railroad History project is a membership organization. It is a non-profit 501 c 3 organization. It's core operations are managed by Mary Liz and Paul Stewart and a host of volunteers. The organization provides speakers to a wide range of community settings, conducts and annual conference currently held at Russell Sage College in Troy and has a variety of other programs.One of the most notable is its Young Abolitionists Teen Scholar's Institute program operated int he summer as part of the City of Albany Teen employment program. With supplemental funding the program utilizes professionals as focus group facilitators and delivers an outstanding education and work program that gives teens exposure to professions and decision making that is unusual among inner city work settings for teens.

I give Underground Railroad History Project five stars! I give it five stars for reclaiming a largely abandoned and threatened building, identifying an African American historic site and bringing it on-line for the community, researching and uncovering a segment of Albany history that most people had overlooked with the role of Albany in the Underground Railroad, educating the community and providing outstanding youth programs that bring history to the community and make it interesting!