Risky Business

Risky Business. The Underground Railroad in York. , In the handsome brick home across the street, owner William C Goodridge used a trapdoor to hide freedom seekers in a hand-dug room under the kitchen floorboards. That was just one indication of the Underground Railroad activity Goodridge orchestrated in York as he helped Blacks escape enslavement., Born enslaved in Baltimore, Goodridge grew up as an indentured servant in York, and developed a lifelong abolitionist spirit. He became a barber after receiving his freedom and used shrewd business sense to turn a one-chair barbershop into a five-story emporium on the northwest corner of York's Center Square., In the 1840s, he added railroad cars to his suite of businesses. His home, business, and railcars became vital instruments in his role as a station master on the Underground Railroad., Goodridge could not risk making notes of his Underground Railroad activities. When the kitchen trapdoor was rediscovered in the late 1890s, well after Goodridge's 1873 death, descendants confirmed that freedom seekers hid in the space. Many other stories, however, will remain untold., For more fascinating history, please tour the William C Goodridge Freedom Center and Underground Railroad Museum at 123 E. Philadelphia St., "Many were the hairbreadth escapes and hazardous trips in those days that tried men's souls." - Anna Bustill Smith, daughter of local abolitionists, (captions) , Not many of John Brown's raiders escaped his 1859 Harpers Ferry, Va., raid, but Osborne Perry Anderson (above) managed to flee to Pennsylvania and went through York. William Goodridge helped him get to Canada. Courtesy West Virginia Archives and History, The highlighted routes are those used by people escaping enslavement as they moved north through south-central Pennsylvania.