Cozad-Bates House Saved

Thursday, April 6, 2006 Download  RSS  Short URL  Share

On Thursday, the last remaining pre-Civil War house in University Circle with strong ties to the Underground Railroad got a new lease on life. ideastream's Karen Schaefer reports.

One day before the Cleveland Planning Commission votes to give the house protected landmark status, University Hospitals donated the Cozad-Bates House on Mayfield Road east of Euclid Ave. to University Circle, Incorporated. Efforts to save the house, built in 1853, go back more than 30 years. In the years before the Civil War, farmers like the Cozads risked fines and imprisonment to help escaping slaves on their way to Canada. City Councilman Kevin Conwell says it’s an untold story now everyone will be able to share.

Joan Southgate: This is the only place in University Circle area that we can put our arms around that is connected to our ancestors.

Joan Southgate, the 77-year-old woman who walked across Ohio on the Underground Railroad in the path of her slave ancestors, has been a key advocate for the house.

Joan Southgate: This is such a good day for all of us. We are going to turn this into an Underground Railroad teaching center and it will be this gateway to University Hospitals campus, but it draw in all kinds of people from all over.

Southgate and University Circle will now begin the work of raising funds to restore the house. Karen Schaefer, 90.3.