Steven’s home, law office and a saloon he owned, along with boarding houses belonging to his African-American housekeeper and business manager Lydia Hamilton Smith, still stand just off the main square in downtown Lancaster. Directly across the street stand the now-derelict former Swan Hotel and carriage house complex, once a hub of early Lancaster life. Together, these six 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 $20 million educational and interpretive complex that will explore the lives and contributions of Stevens and Smith, as well as the themes of the rise of public education, civil rights, equality, slavery, the Civil War and American 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 Steven’s home and the Kleiss Saloon, 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 to the Stevens & Smith era, many of which will be displayed in the new complex.

All of these elements – Stevens’ home and law office, the Kleiss Saloon, 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 city’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.
5. Link Lancaster to the planned Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom Trail, which will encompass historic sites from Philadelphia to Gettysburg.