The Old York Road to Freedom exhibition will open
the weekend of December 5th and 6th, 2015!
Telling the story of the end of slavery in America
Go to www.stpaulsfriends.org for more
information, and to make a donation!
Upcoming Events at St. Paul’s Elkins Park
You can be part of telling the story! There are several ways
that you can participate in our community celebration of an
historic spiritual and social justice triumph:
u Saturday, November 14, 2015, 7:00pm
A concert of music by African-American composers
Produced by David Anthony Lofton, Master Vocal
Coach at the Academy of Vocal Arts and Music
Director of St. Paul’s Elkins Park
u You can provide financial support needed to bring
The Old York Road to Freedom Story to the public
through our Underground Railroad exhibit and student
educational materials – being developed and curated
by local historians and educators.
u You can become a member of Friends of St. Paul’s Elkins
Park. Be a part of exciting programming that surrounds
the celebration of the Ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment – and also includes year-round concerts
and events that lift the human spirit.
u You can join us on the weekend of December 6, 2015
to celebrate the work of courageous abolitionists and
God’s Mighty Acts!
u Saturday, December 5, 2015, 12:00 Noon
The Old York Road to Freedom Exhibition Opening
u Saturday, December 5, 2015, 7:00pm
Lessons and Carols for the Underground Railroad
The Old York Road to Freedom in Music and Words
u Sunday, December 6, 2015, 10:00am
All are Welcome to a Special Community Service
with Music – To mark the 150th anniversary of the
end of the abomination of institutionalized slavery
in America (Exhibition open until 5:00pm)
u Saturday, December 19, 2015, 7:30pm
Third Annual Bach by Candlelight Concert
Lukens Baroque Ensemble and Chorale
To contribute to telling The Old York Road to Freedom Story, to become a member of Friends
of St. Paul’s Elkins Park, and to preview upcoming events, visit www.stpaulsfriends.org
“The history of Cheltenham along the Old York
Road during the abolitionist and Civil War periods
deserves to be known by everyone. We applaud this
community partnership and look forward to the
exhibition at Saint Paul’s Elkins Park.”
— David B. Rowland, President, Old York Road
Historical Society
“I call upon all churches in the Episcopal
Diocese of Pennsylvania to join the celebration
of this day, and invite all houses of worship
to do the same. God’s hands were truly in the
events that happened in and around St. Paul’s
Elkins Park on the Old York Road to Freedom.”
— The Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel, III, Bishop, Diocese
of Pennsylvania, The Episcopal Church in the United
States of America
7809 Old York Road Elkins Park, PA 19027
215.635.4185
[email protected]
www.stpaulselkinspark.org
The Old York Road to Freedom
A Cheltenham
Community Partnership
Join us on
December 5th and 6th, 2015
in a community partnership
to celebrate
The 150th anniversary
of the end of slavery in America
On December 6, 1865, the Thirteenth
Amendment was ratified, making slavery
unconstitutional in the United States. For many
years before that, Cheltenham embodied the
spiritual, economic, and activist mission to
end slavery in America. From stations on the
Underground Railroad, to abolitionists’ homes,
Old York Road was a path to freedom.
On the weekend of December 6, 2015, with
the help of local historians, artists, designers,
poets, teachers, schools, and community
groups, the Friends of St. Paul’s Elkins Park will
open a historic exhibit, “The Old York Road
to Freedom”, with a reconstruction of a hiding
place on the Underground Railroad in our
church crypt.
As Cheltenham’s first purpose-built house of
worship, St. Paul’s Elkins Park was in many ways
the heart and soul of that mission.
We invite neighbors near and far to join us
and celebrate God’s mighty acts achieved on
this date!
Drawing by William Daley
The Old York Road to Freedom
Celebrating our role in ending the abominable
institution of slavery in America
More than 150 years ago, abolitionists and the faith community along Old
York Road supported an end to the abominable institution of slavery.
This year, St. Paul’s Elkins Park and its partners will celebrate the role
our community played by being at the spiritual, economic and activist
heart of this effort. We ask that you join us in honoring the work
of those phenomenal leaders by taking part in our celebration and
by supporting our educational program.
Jay Cooke built the first investment bank inter-connected
Jay Cooke
by telegraph, and became the first great American
financier. His home in Cheltenham was called
Ogontz. Born into a radically-antislavery
Ohio family, he became known as the
financial savior of the Union, as he used
the new media of his day to sell billions of
dollars’ worth of U.S. Government Bonds,
funding the Union armed forces.
Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Montier
Cheltenham has a long history of diversity, as Cremona Morrey, freed slave
and wife of Richard Morrey (who was himself the son of Philadelphia’s
first mayor), became the first African major landowner in the
1700s, in what was to become Cheltenham Township in the
United States. Their descendants include the great singer and
humanitarian, Paul Robeson; William Pickens, co-founder
of the NAACP, and Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Montier, pictured
here by noted Philadelphia artist Franklin Street, the first
painted portraits of an African-American married couple.
Harriet Tubman,known as “Captain Tubman” by those
she worked with and helped on her dangerous missions on
the Underground Railroad, was known to visit and stay with
Lucretia Mott in Cheltenham. She also addressed the troops at
Camp William Penn.
Lucretia Mott was a longtime Quaker
antislavery advocate of women’s rights, who
became fast friends with Jay Cooke when she
moved to Cheltenham in 1857. She was called by
her contemporaries “the greatest woman of the
19th Century”.
William Still
Lucretia Mott
St. Paul’s Elkins Park, the first purpose-built house of worship
St. Paul’s Elkins Park
in Cheltenham, pictured here by noted Civil War artist Xanthus Smith,
was funded and built by Jay Cooke in 1861. It was the first of many
churches across America built and reconstructed by Jay Cooke, who
always gave 10% of his income to the Church. St. Paul’s was later
expanded by noted Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer, and
13 spectacular stained glass windows by Louis Tiffany were added.
Lucretia Mott regularly attended Jay Cooke’s bible classes here.
Jay Cooke’s banking desk remains in St. Paul’s, and his mausoleum
is in the churchyard.
William Still was the Philadelphia-based chairman of the
Vigilance Committee of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, co-founded
by the Mott family. As a Conductor on the Underground Railroad, he directly
aided fugitive slaves, sending them north on the Old York Road to the many
hiding-place Stations in Cheltenham.
Camp William Penn, built on land in Cheltenham owned by the Mott family,
was the first and largest training ground for troops of color in the Civil War.
Some 11,000 free blacks and escaped slaves were trained here, including 8,612
from Pennsylvania; the most black troops recruited during the war from any
northern state. St. Paul’s Elkins Park provided the only regular religious services
in the camp, and the women of the church cared for sick soldiers there.
Harriet
Tubman