Bid for Underground Railroad home restoration gets Oberlin Council backing

OBERLIN — Traveling under the cover of darkness, pursued by slave-catchers and in fear for their lives, Black families could find a hiding place at Bruce Wilson Evans' door. The Oberlin carpenter and abolitionist's home at 33 E. Vine St. was a safe place to rest before continuing the dangerous journey north to freedom. Now City Council is backing a $30,000 bid to help restore the porch of the onetime Underground Railroad stop. It voted Monday to endorse a grant application to the Ohio History Connection — the state's preservation office. If successful, the Oberlin Heritage Center and Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society plan to remove the house's 1927 porch and replace it with an entrance that would have been familiar during the Civil War era. Carol Lasser, manager of the Evans historical society, said the goal is to eventually restore the entire home to how it looked when Evans lived there, from 1856 until his death in 1898. "This will be a major step forward for us," she said. The Evans house is on the National Register of Historic Places and has also been designated an Oberlin landmark, according to Carrie Porter, the city's planning and development director. Evans' place in local history has also been enshrined in numerous books. He and brother Henry Evans were both participants in the 1858 march from Oberlin to Wellington to rescue John Price, an escaped former slave who was kidnapped by slave-catchers. While the Evans brothers were born into freedom in North Carolina, they risked their lives time and again by defying the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and illegally harboring desperate people seeking safety in Canada. The Oberlin Historic Preservation Commission already has given its blessing to the porch replacement project, Porter said. All that remains is to get the funding. Council voted to fast-track its support of the state grant application to meet a Feb. 18 deadline. Doing so does not mean any taxpayer money will be diverted from the city budget, Porter said. This is not the first time City Council has put its stamp of approval on a historic preservation grant application. It did the same for the First Church of Oberlin United Church of Christ when it asked for state cash to renovate its Meeting House, which also has a rich history of being a center of abolitionist work. Several officials spoke about the Evans home's importance to Oberlin history. Councilwoman Eboni Johnson called it "a real jewel in our community." She was among those who toured the home last year when Evans' descendants held an inaugural meeting of their historical society. They were joined by local residents concerned about the preservation of African American history, according to Lasser. "There's really some beautiful details in there that I think the renovation will bring out," Johnson said. "More power to you," Councilman Ray English told Lasser, "not just with this grant proposal, but the other work that's needed to really complete the renovation of the home and begin actual programming." Appropriately located near Oberlin's Martin Luther King Jr. Park, the Evans home has been vacant since 1997. In a 2021 presentation, Charles Hall of Cleveland-based City Architecture outlined priorities for bringing it back to its original stature. At the top of the list was a new roof to replace the 127-year-old Pennsylvania blue slate, followed by the front porch and rear wing reconstruction. The original hope had been to open the home to the public in 2022. That's unlikely to happen now, Lasser said. If all works out, eventually the building will be used as a meeting hall for up to 40 people, and for educational programs and exhibits. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.