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The Pines/Fussell House

In the years leading up to the Civil War, The Kennett Square area was known as “the hotbed of abolitionism” due to the help many local resident gave to fugitive slaves. These Underground Railroad “stationmasters” provided shelter in their homes, called “stations,” and then secretly moved them along to another station, enroute north or west, to freedom. One of the most prominent of these stationmasters was Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, whose house still stands at the intersection of Baltimore Pike and McFarlan Road in Kennett Township, just outside of the Borough of Kennett Square, minutes from Longwood Gardens.

Some 2000 fugitive slaves passed through Fusssell’s house, “The Pines” and nearly every distinguished abolitionist to come to Kennett Square was entertained there at one time or another. It is one of the most historic of the more than three dozen Underground Railroad house in the Kennett Square area, the largest concentration of URR houses in an 8 mile radius in the country and the “hub of the Underground Railroad.”

History of Kennett Township