BACK
TO: [The Underground Railroads story]
2.9.00
A stop on freedom's road
By SHALISE M MANZA
Journal Staff Writer
NEW BEDFORD
— It's not much to look at, the old house at 21 Seventh St. The steep wooden stairs are gray now, their red paint worn off from years of residents and visitors trudging up each one; the clapboard shingles are in need of replacement.
But in the 19th century, 21 Seventh St. was home to one of New Bedford's wealthiest black men, and for a time it gave shelter to one of this country's most famous former slaves: Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, better known as Frederick Douglass.
Already part of the National Register of Historic Places, the Nathan and Polly Johnson House -- which also serves as the headquarters for the New Bedford Historical Society -- is one small step from being named a National Historic Landmark.
The designation is a more significant one, since only 3 percent of the 70,000 sites on the Register are named National Landmarks.
The National Park Service Website says that landmarks are places which ``possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.''
Documents show that New Bedford Quakers William C. Taber and Joseph Ricketson brought Douglass and his wife, Anna, to Johnson's home in September 1838.
Nathan and Polly Johnson were known black abolitionists, but were also businesspeople. They owned a confectionery at 23 Seventh St., where a house now stands, and were also caterers.
Besides the home they lived in, they owned 17-19 Seventh St., a Friends Meeting House where it is also believed slaves were harbored, and the house at 96 Spring St., which is behind and west of the Meeting House.
It was Johnson who gave Douglass his last name: Bailey was Frederick's slave name, which he changed to Johnson upon his escape. But Nathan Johnson said there were too many blacks with that name in the city, and suggested Douglass, possibly after the Rev. Robert and Grace Douglass, who were prominent in Philadelphia's black community.
It is believed Nathan Johnson was a native Philadelphian, but New Bedford historians are unsure of his birthplace.
The Douglasses were not the first, nor the last, escaped slaves the Johnsons would take in. The couple stayed at Seventh Street for about a year, when Frederick was able to rent the rear of a house on Elm Street.
He was living with the Johnsons when he made what is believed to be his first public speech, at the Third Christian Church, on March 12, 1839.
He would go on to become one of the most revered orators in our history.
John W. Piltzecker, superintendent of the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park, said the Johnson House nomination was approved on Dec. 13th by the National Park System Adivsory Board. It is awaiting approval from the secretary of the Interior, which should come by early next month.
Piltzecker said the site is pretty much a lock for the honor: ``The biggest hurdle was getting it by the Advisory Board. It's very unusual for the secretary not to approve'' a landmark once the board has given its thumbs-up.
The nomination was so well written, the board told Piltzecker, that it wasn't necessary for him to travel to Washington to serve as an advocate for the site during the December meeting as he had planned.
Much of that credit goes to the New Bedford Historical Society, he said, and especially Catherine Grover, who did much of the research for the submittal papers.
Piltzecker thinks that there is a terrific opportunity for the New Bedford Historical Society to work with officials at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, where his last home has been preserved.
If the Johnson House is named a landmark, it will then become eligible for federal preservation grants, which are meted out through the state historic preservation office.
That's good news, since the nonprofit Historical Society recently obtained the deed to the house from WHALE, the Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE, which purchased the building from its former owner, who had converted the structure's tiny rooms into four apartments.
Now the Historical Society wants to restore the house to its 19th-century condition, though there are few original details left to use as a guide. The project won't be cheap -- Janine daSilva, a preservation consultant for the society, estimates it will cost more than $100,000.
The original house, with narrow hallways and low ceilings, was built in the 1820s. About 30 years later, daSilva said, the original structure was moved back from the street and an addidtion was built to the front of the house.
A winding wooden staircase, now creaky more than 100 years later, remains from the expansion, though the original wallcoverings have been replaced by a garish yellow print.
DaSilva said she has found small patches of the 1800s wallpaper in the attic.
She believes that there is only one room that Douglass would remember were he to visit the home today: one on the second floor of the original house with a fireplace mantle and the ghost of a door used long ago now covered over by plaster.
It is now used for Historical Society meetings and other events. A large portrait of Douglass sits on the mantle..
-- JIM SEAVOR
