CLEVELAND, Ohio — Before the Civil War, Northeast Ohio was a hotbed of abolitionism, dotted with safe houses and sites where fleeing slaves could find refuge.
Today, very few of those places exist, demolished and redeveloped over the decades.
One that still stands: The Cozad-Bates House, a brick beauty on Mayfield Road in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood, built in 1853 and almost knocked down earlier this century.
It opened to the public for tours in 2021, with four restored rooms that tell the stories of Northeast Ohio’s daring Underground Railroad pioneers and their lasting impact on society.
The house is open every Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., with special hours from noon to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19 for Juneteenth, the federal holiday that celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. Admission is free.
History of the house
The house was built in 1853 by Andrew Cozad, a wealthy landowner and farmer in what was then known as East Cleveland Township, the rural region east of the city that makes up modern-day University Circle, East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights.
He built the house for his son, Justus, who worked as a railroad engineer and land surveyor.
Justus Cozad was away from the house for long periods of time in the mid-19th century, and it’s unclear if the home was ever actually used to hide escaping slaves.
The Cozad family, however, had a long history of outspoken abolitionism and was absolutely involved in the Underground Railroad, said Jeanne Van Atta, vice president of Restore Cleveland Hope, the nonprofit that fought to save the home and offers tours of the property.
“It’s still an important house,” said Van Atta -- in part because it offers an authentic opportunity to share the vital history that happened in the area nearly 200 years ago.
The house was built three years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, which required that slaves -- even those who had escaped to free states -- be returned to their owners in the South.
It made the Underground Railroad – the informal network of safe houses throughout the pre-Civil War northern United States – that much more dangerous.
Northeast Ohio, the last stop for many escaping slaves before freedom in Canada, was a hotbed of abolitionism, from Sandusky to Oberlin to Cleveland to Ashtabula.
Last year, Tourism Ohio created the Ohio Historical Underground Railroad Trail, which features nearly two dozen public sites throughout the state that highlight Ohio’s strong anti-slavery history, from the Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati to the John Brown House in Akron.
Cleveland’s Cozad-Bates House is included on the trail, as is the Hubbard House Museum in Ashtabula and the Follett House Museum in Sandusky.
A map in the restored Cozad-Bates House shows the labyrinth of routes that escaping slaves might have traveled – crossing into Ohio at Cincinnati, Portsmouth or Marietta, traveling north toward Cleveland, Ashtabula and Oberlin.
“Northeast Ohio was one of the most active Underground Railroad areas in the country,” said Matt Provolt, associate director of planning and design for University Circle Inc.
Because what they were doing was illegal, most participants didn’t document their actions, which makes piecing together the history tricky.
Still, a young Justus Cozad offered a glimpse of life in the region in his journal: “I myself have worked many a day in the field with runaway slaves and always sat at the table to eat with them.”
The quote is inscribed in a sidewalk outside his home.
Two other Northeast Ohio stories highlight the drama and danger that faced escaping slaves, as well as the people who helped them:
- In 1858, John Price, a former slave living in Oberlin, was lured out of town and captured by a slave catcher hired by his former owner. In what became known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, hundreds of outraged Oberlin residents helped free Price, who eventually escaped to Canada. Meanwhile, 37 men who assisted in the escape were indicted and arraigned in U.S. District Court in downtown Cleveland, where Public Square was filled with anti-slavery demonstrations for days.
- In January 1861 – just a few months before the start of the Civil War – Clevelander Sara Lucy Bagby was sent back to Virginia after her former owner arrived to reclaim her in Northeast Ohio, where an elaborate plan to rescue her was thwarted. After she was freed during the war, she returned to Cleveland, where she died in 1906. She is buried at Woodland Cemetery.
“As far as we know, she was the last person sent back before the Civil War,” Provolt said.
A final exhibit in the house covers the tumultuous years following the Civil War, offering a critical look at some of the effects of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed slavery, granted citizenship to former slaves and granted citizens the right to vote. Among the topics covered: poll taxes and literacy tests, mass incarceration and other injustices.
“While trying to correct wrongs, they created new ones,” said Provolt.
Outside the house, patterned brick work represents the North Star, which often served to guide fleeing slaves as they made their way north, and a small garden features edible and medicinal plants that might have been sought out on the journey.
Saving the house
The house remained in the Cozad family until the early 20th century, when it was turned into a boarding house and later apartments. Vacant since the 1980s, the house was on the verge of being demolished in 2006, when University Hospitals opted instead to donate it to University Circle.
After more than a decade of fundraising and restoration work, the home opened to the public in 2021, during the COVID pandemic.
Van Atta called the house “an unnoticed gem in University Circle.”
Because the tours started during COVID, she said, “We didn’t promote it as much as we might have. A lot of people are still discovering us.”
Just a fraction of the building was included in the recent $2 million restoration. The Italianate-style front section – added in 1872 – has been stabilized, but is not part of the tour.
Future restoration plans are uncertain, said Provolt. “It’s a long process,” he said. “It’s a big house.”
Van Atta said she hopes restoration of the house continues.
Restore Cleveland Hope takes its name from Cleveland’s code name, “Hope,” during the Underground Railroad period.
The organization was founded in the early 2000s by Cleveland civil rights pioneer Joan Southgate, now 95, who, two decades ago, walked from Ripley, Ohio, to St. Catherines, Ontario, over two summers to bring attention to the lessons of the Underground Railroad.
Those lessons, said Van Atta, extend beyond centuries-old Ohio history and into the present.
A recent visitor, Van Atta recalled, pondered difficult questions as she walked through the exhibits: “What would I have done if I had been there? Would I have helped? Those are the types of moral dilemmas we all can learn from.”
More information: Cleveland’s Cozad-Bates House is located at 11508 Mayfield Road, two blocks east of Euclid Avenue. For tour information: restoreclevelandhope.com, universitycircle.org/cozad-bates-house-interpretive-center
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