Steven’s home, law office and a tavern he owned, along with boarding houses belonging to his free black housekeeper and business manager, Lydia Hamilton Smith, still stand just off the main square in downtown Lancaster.  Together, these four historic structures anchor a historic precinct that provides a tangible link to both Stevens and Smith and their fascinating story. The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County plans to restore the structures to their original appearance and integrate them into a $18 million educational and interpretive complex that will explore the lives and contributions of Stevens and Smith, as well as the themes of the history of public education, civil rights, equality, slavery, the Civil War and women’s history.

Also incorporated into the complex will be an important archeological site that links Stevens and Smith to the Underground Railroad. In the courtyard behind Stevens’ home and the adjacent Kleiss Tavern, archaeologists recently uncovered an underground cistern that they believe was a secret hiding place for runaway slaves on their way to freedom in the North. In addition to the cistern, the archaeological dig turned up more than 100,000 artifacts dating from the 1700s through the present era, some of which will be displayed in the new complex.

All of these elements – Stevens’ home and law office, the Kleiss Tavern, Smith’s boarding houses and the underground cistern and archaeological site – work together to tell a compelling story about freedom in America. As a bridge between the past and the present, the educational and interpretive complex will connect Lancaster residents in new and meaningful ways to the city’s history. It will:

1. Provide a wealth of educational resources for school children, college students, families, scholars and researchers, and church, cultural and heritage groups.
2. Recognize and celebrate the diversity within our community that has existed since the community’s early days.
3. Provide role models – in the persons of Stevens and Smith – for working together across the racial divide to insure freedom and equality for all.
4. Offer natural connections to other historic places in Lancaster County – for example, to Wheatland, President James Buchanan’s home and LancasterHistory.org’s developing “Campus of History.”
5. Link Lancaster to the planned Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom Trail, which will link historic sites from Philadelphia to Gettysburg and beyond.