This South Jersey Underground Railroad museum to reopen after 3-year closure

Phaedra Trethan, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
·2 min read

The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum was closed to the public for three long years.

But the Lawnside site, home to its namesake abolitionist and preacher, is ready to welcome visitors once again. It officially opens to the public again on March 18.

First closed due to the pandemic in March 2020, the house was showing its nearly 180 years of age. Built around 1845, the house was the home of Rev. Peter Mott and his wife Elizabeth Ann, agents of the Underground Railroad network which helped enslaved people find their way to freedom. The house opened as a museum in 2001.

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In 2021, as vaccines became widely available and the world reemerged from lockdowns, though, the Lawnside Historical Society took stock of conditions at the house, which is on the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places, and realized that, before the house could reopen it would need extensive — and expensive — repairs.

Fixing the Underground Railroad site

Linda Shockley, president of the Lawnside Historical Society, took the Courier-Post on a tour of the house to show what work was needed. Water was flowing down the roof's cedar tiles and into a bulkhead leading to the cellar; watermarks stained the kitchen ceiling. Outside, bricks were shifting and a hole in the roof was patched with wood.

Items on display at The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum, located in the historically African-American town of Lawnside, N.J.
Items on display at The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum, located in the historically African-American town of Lawnside, N.J.

The house needed a new roof, gutters, new clapboard siding, new shutters, windows, sills, and fencing; and repairs to the chimney. The total costs would likely come in at around $100,000, Shockley estimated.

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Through a combination of funding sources, including private and corporate donations and grants from the state and county historical trusts, the house now has a new roof, new HVAC and many of the other repairs have been completed.

The house will also have new features unveiled later this year at an official grand reopening ceremony (the date is still to be determined).

A baby shoe, on display at The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum in Lawnside, N.J., was found during an archaeological dig at the site in 1994. May 19, 2021.
A baby shoe, on display at The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum in Lawnside, N.J., was found during an archaeological dig at the site in 1994. May 19, 2021.

What to know if you go

The Peter Mott House Underground Railroad Museum is at 26 Kings Court, Lawnside. Walk-ins will be welcome on Saturdays beginning March 18 from noon to 3 p.m. (open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 18). Tour guides will do temperature checks and face masks are required inside the house; social distancing is encouraged. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for K-12 students and can be paid by cash, check or PayPal.

For more information about the Peter Mott House, to donate or to book a group tour, visit www.petermotthouse.org/

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has called the region home since 1971. Contact her at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @wordsbyPhaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Peter Mott House reopens after closures from COVID and renovations