Underground Railroad Escape Route Found Behind Dresser Drawer in Historic NYC Home

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A hidden passageway linked to the Underground Railroad has been discovered inside a historic Manhattan home.

The discovery was tucked behind built-in dresser drawers in a second-floor bedroom — a find that experts are calling one of the most significant historic preservation discoveries in decades.

The building, now the Merchant’s House Museum, sits on East 4th Street in the NoHo neighborhood of New York City.

The hidden passageway provides rare physical evidence of the city’s role in helping enslaved people escape to freedom, reinforcing that New York played a larger part in the abolitionist movement than many people realize.

NY1 was first to report the find.

What Was Found Behind the Dresser

The hidden space was discovered beneath built-in dresser drawers in a second-floor bedroom and hallway area of the home.

It leads through a small opening in the floor measuring about 2 feet by 2 feet — just large enough for a person to slip through. The opening connects to a vertical shaft or enclosed space that runs down to the lower level of the house, with a ladder providing access between floors.

The concealment was described as highly sophisticated and intentionally invisible to slave catchers or authorities.

The home was likely used as a safe house for enslaved people fleeing the South, and the passageway’s design reflects careful planning to keep that purpose hidden from anyone who might come looking.

“We knew it was here, but didn’t really know what we were looking at,” Camille Czerkowicz, the curator for the Merchant’s House Museum, told NY1.

A House With Deep Roots in Abolitionism

The landmark building was built in 1832 by Joseph Brewster, who is believed to have been an abolitionist, per NY1.

The property was later owned by the Tredwell family, who lived there for about a century. It is unclear whether the Tredwells knew about the hidden passage.

Patrick Ciccone, an architectural historian, pointed to Brewster’s role in making the concealment possible from the start.

“Being an abolitionist was incredibly rare among white New Yorkers, especially wealthy white New Yorkers,” Ciccone said. “[Joseph Brewster] was the builder of the house, and he was able to make these choices and design it.”

The building later became a museum preserving 19th-century New York life in 1936. It became Manhattan’s first landmarked building in 1965.

Why This Discovery Matters

The Underground Railroad was a secret network of abolitionists who helped enslaved people escape to freedom.

Even in northern states like New York, escapees faced danger due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which allowed bounty hunters to capture them.

The discovery highlights the risks taken by both those seeking freedom and those who helped them.

Physical evidence of Underground Railroad activity in New York City is rare, which is part of what makes this find so extraordinary.

Much of the history of the Underground Railroad has been passed down through oral accounts and written records, but tangible, physical proof — a hidden shaft behind a dresser, a ladder connecting floors in secret — is far harder to come by.

“I’ve been practicing historical preservation law for 30 years, and this is a generational find. This is the most significant find in historic preservation in my career, and it’s very important that we preserve this,” Michael Hiller, a preservation attorney and professor at Pratt Institute, told NY1.

A Reminder of New York’s Role in the Fight for Freedom

The discovery also carries weight beyond the walls of the museum. It serves as a concrete reminder that the struggle for freedom played out not just in the South but in cities across the North, including in the heart of Manhattan.

“Many New Yorkers forget that we were part of the abolitionist movement, but this is physical evidence of what happened in the South [during] the Civil War, and what’s happening today,” Manhattan Councilman Christopher Marte said.

Manhattan Councilman Harvey Epstein echoed the significance of the discovery.

“It’s a critical piece of the overall struggle for freedom and justice,” Epstein said.

The discovery reinforces that New York played a larger role in the abolitionist movement than many people realize.

The timing of the announcement during Black History Month adds to its historical relevance, connecting the physical evidence of the past to ongoing conversations about the nation’s history of slavery and resistance.

A Sophisticated System Hiding in Plain Sight

What makes the passageway especially striking is how deliberately it was designed to escape detection. Built into the very structure of the home in 1832, the concealment was not an afterthought or a quick modification.

The dresser drawers that sat above the opening served as an ordinary, unremarkable piece of furniture — the kind of detail someone would walk past without a second glance.

The 2-foot-by-2-foot opening and the vertical shaft running between floors suggest a system built with purpose: to move people quickly and quietly from one level of the house to another, keeping them out of sight.

The ladder connecting the floors made it possible for someone to descend or climb without making the kind of noise that stairs or hallways might produce.

For the people who passed through this space — enslaved men, women, and possibly children fleeing the South — the passageway represented a precarious step on the long and dangerous road to freedom.

For Brewster, building it into his home meant accepting enormous personal risk in an era when aiding escaped enslaved people could carry severe legal consequences.