Brian Yates

Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA

It is a point of pride to many city residents that the Jackson Homestead, the home of the Newton History Museum, was a station on the Underground Railroad, the network of safe houses used by escaped slaves from the South to get to freedom in Canada. I have long felt that this status and the Underground Railroad exhibit in the Homestead should be one the prime reasons for visitors to come to the Museum. Over the years, I have worked with Museum staff and the staff of Representative Barney Frank to get the Jackson Homestead listed on the National Park Service’s Network of Freedom and on the National Register of Historic Sites’ travel itinerary “Aboard the Underground Railroad.”
The following are links to informative web sites that describe various aspects of the Underground Railroad:

http://209.10.16.21/TEMPLATE/FrontEnd/index.cfm (Network of Freedom)

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ (Aboard the Underground Railroad; A National Register Travel Itinerary

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ma7.htm (Relates to the role of the Jackson Homestead)

h ttp://www.ci.newton.ma.us/jackson/news/nurnf.asp (The Newton History Museum)

This page last updated on October 12, 2005