Levi Coffin House

Levi Coffin, who is often referred to as the "President of the Underground Railroad," and his wife Catherine were heroic in helping fugitive slaves escape to freedom by providing supplies and a safe shelter. The Coffin House in Newport (present-day Fountain City), Indiana, became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad because of its location where three of the escape routes to the North (Madison and Jeffersonville, Indiana; Cincinnati, Ohio) converged and the number of fugitive slaves who passed through it. During the twenty years (1826-1847) that the Coffins lived in Indiana it is believed that they helped as many as 2,000 slaves escape to freedom in the Northern United States and in Canada. One of the many slaves who hid in the Coffin home was "Eliza," whose story is told in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The Coffin House was purchased in 1967 by the State of Indiana. The house was restored and then opened to the public in 1970. The site is a registered National Historic Landmark.