KENNETT UNDERGROUND RAILROAD CENTER
P. O. Box 202, Kennett Square, PA 19348
November 23, 2009
Dear friends,
Throughout 2009, KURC has been working with Pocopson Township to get the Eusebius Barnard House ready for two tenants: their offices and our museum. If you live in the area, drive up Wawaset Road and have a look at the beautiful old stone house, across from the back entrance to the Pocopson Home. You’ll like its setting next to Pocopson Park’s big cornfield, where no development can ever spring up.
The township has chosen architect Dennis Melton to oversee the necessary changes, and Ann Barton Brown, our museum consultant, advises us and acts as cheerleader. We’ve enjoyed studying the history of the house with Pocopson residents Jean Conary, Kris Firey-Poling, and Alta Bittle Hoffman. When Alta’s mother died last year, she and her brother Del Bittle, descendants of Eusebius and Sarah Painter Barnard, asked for donations for the Barnard House in lieu of flowers. This brought in a nice lot of support, which we greatly appreciate.
We’ve been busy this past year, too, with our tours, led by guides Karen Baskerville, Tom Hoover, Rusty Jones, Marjorie Kaskey, Roger Price, Michele Sullivan, and me, Mary Dugan. Karen, Michele, Tom, and Rusty are new guides. Rusty’s a long-time Kennett resident, Karen a Lincoln University professor, Michele a teacher and psychologist, and Tom a retired middle-school teacher. Rusty and Karen are KURC board members.
Besides our scheduled tours on summer Sunday afternoons, we’ve offered tours at the Mushroom Festival and Unionville Community Fair. For all our tours, we’ve been grateful for the
excellent services of DuVall Buses. Also, in response to demand, we’ve begun giving increasingly popular private tours: one of our guides will ride along in your car, bus, or van for a donation.
Our walking tours of East Linden Street at the Historic East Linden Project fundraiser in September and Kennett’s Town Tours in June were good community outreach, and fun too. We were
pleased to be able to give some support to Hosanna Church’s renovation, Marlborough Friends Meeting, and an Eagle Scout project to spruce up the old AME cemetery in Pocopson Township.
On a shoestring we reach many people, but once we’re in the Barnard House so many more will learn about this area’s rich abolitionist history, AND have the experience of exploring a “station.” We hope you’ll be extra generous this year.
Thanks and happy holidays to you all,
Mary Larkin Dugan, president
Board of Directors: Mary Anderson, Karen Baskerville, Martin Greene,
Darryl Hall, Linda and Earl Jones, Marjorie Kaskey, Treasurer John O’Neal