Originally published in The Morning Journal
Amanda Terrell, director of the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, has announced an award to the City of Oberlin for $30,000 to assist in the restoration of a Civil War-era entry at the Wilson Bruce Evans House, according to a news release.
The Wilson Bruce Evans House is a National Historic Landmark home built in 1854-56 by a freeborn Black cabinetmaker, abolitionist and Oberlin-Wellington rescuer.
The Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society will work in partnership with the grant’s fiscal sponsor, Oberlin Heritage Center (OHC), to complete this stage in the larger restoration project that will, in the end, allow the Evans House to open to the public as a museum and educational center telling the story of the Evans family, their descendants and the struggle for racial justice in Oberlin and in the United States.
The Evans House, 33 E. Vine St., is one of very few in the nation that can claim to have been built and occupied by a verified Underground Railroad agent.