New minister takes on old work of saving Underground Railroad history in Lexington | Opinion

The stairs are barely a foot wide, a mahogany tower that curves upward into darkness.

No one is allowed into the tiny room at the top of the stairs next to the altar at Historic St. Paul AME Church; it’s not safe until the staircase and foundation have been fortified.

But even sealed off, the space once used to hide passengers on the Underground Railroad in Lexington is a crucial part of the heart and history of one of the city’s oldest sanctuaries.

“I believe the church was built here for the sole purpose of the Underground Railroad,” said Priscilla Sullivan, a multi-generational parishioner and historian of the church, who remembers playing in the room in the 1960s.

Built in 1826 on North Upper close to Third Street, the church was just a block away from the route on Limestone that went straight to Maysville, the Ohio River and the freedom on the other bank.

According to Sullivan, the original space ran along the upper floor of the whole length of the building. When it was remodeled in 1906, well after the Civil War, they left just a small area as a hiding place, either to commemorate the Underground Railroad or just in case a hiding places were still needed, which, in Jim Crow Kentucky, they often were.

Church members always knew about the space, but the church didn’t make it public until after 1976 — when Kentucky became the second-to-last state to officially ratify the 13th Amendment, which ended slavery in the U.S. in 1865.

“We didn’t trust the system,” Sullivan said. “I believe they felt like they didn’t need the space anymore, but they didn’t want to lose it entirely.”

With a new leader, Dr. Stephanie Raglin, who started last year, the church is hoping to start a new fundraising campaign to save this crucial piece of Lexington history so that it can be opened to the public as part of the future Lexington Freedom Train .

“We are praying to God,” Raglin said. “It’s already been done in His name.”

In March, the church received $140,000 from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program from the National Trust for Historic Preservation that headed by Paducah native and UK graduate Brent Leggs.

‘Buildings tell a story’

Sullivan said that St. Paul has left very little in the written record, perhaps because the enslaved were not supposed to know how to read or write. She’s tracked down information through property records of various trustees of the church who aided in property sales, such as Henry Tandy, the Black builder for whom Tandy Park is now named.

“Buildings really tell the story,” Sullivan said.

Nonetheless, other historical narratives have confirmed St. Paul AME as a “station” on the Underground Railroad, says local historian Yvonne Giles, who is also helping to lead the Lexington Freedom Train project.

“It’s very important because it was a ‘station,’ a place where people sheltered,” she said. There’s much more research to be done because it was 64 miles to Maysville, and there must have been other stations along the way. We just don’t know exactly where.”

The Lexington Freedom Train project is starting with a statue on North Lime and Fourth Street honoring Lewis and Harriet Hayden who made it on the Underground Railroad from Lexington to Boston, but Giles said St. Paul AME will be an important part of the educational piece of the project.

St. Paul AME will keep fundraising for the project, which will help with the upkeep of the entire 198-year-old church, its beautiful stained glass windows and its priceless piece of the historical record. If you wish to donate, go to https://spame.org/index.php/donate.