Finney Barn
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William Dolarson

Finney Barn, also, William Dolarson. . , Finney Barn. Seymour Finney conducted one of the principal passenger depots of the underground railroad in the Detroit area. Finney, a tailor by trade, later became a hotel-keeper, and it was in this capacity that he assisted fugitive slaves in the era prior to 1861. In 1850 he purchased a site where in later years stood the Finney Hotel, and also erected a large barn which he operated along with his tavern. Strongly sympathetic to the abolitionist cause, Finney employed every means to assist escaping slaves across the river into Canada. Detroit was one of the most important "stations" en route to Canada; if a fugitive reached this city, he was comparatively safe. Finney Barn served as a hiding-place for runaways until they could reach the river bank and freedom., William Dolarson. "George" William Dolarson was born into slavery in Virginia in 1808. At age eighteen, he was sold three times. He lived in Natchez, Mississippi, until he self-emancipated and fled to Buffalo, New York, around 1834. There he was a sailor and encountered the Under-ground Railroad. He 1narried Maria Fletcher (1819-1891) in Canandaigua, New York, before coming to Detroit in 1836 and buying a farm. They briefly lived in Canada after the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Dolarson, working and staying on this site as the Capitol School's janitor from 1851 to 1854, aided freedo1n seekers brought here by abolitionists, such as Asher Array. He hid them in his home and in the Finney Barn before helping the1n cross into Canada. In 1854 he joined the California Gold Rush. Later, back in Detroit, the Dolarsons lived on Croghan Street, where he died on May 9, 1889.