PORTLAND (AP) – A 179-year-old building in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, boarded up and neglected for years, is being recognized as Maine’s first site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

“It’s a significant site because so many people were involved,” said Sheri Jackson, Northeast regional manager for the park service’s Network to Freedom. “Portland was one of those cities that was a gateway to the North. We cannot tell the story without including Maine.”

Runaway slaves were concealed, supplied and transported from the timber-frame Abyssinian hall, which dates to 1828. It is the nation’s third-oldest church building established by a black congregation, after churches in Boston and Nantucket, Mass.

The park service has included 328 sites in 31 states in the Network to Freedom to help tell the story of the Underground Railroad, said Jackson. The Committee to Restore the Abyssinian has been working for a decade to complete a $3 million restoration of the building.

The Abyssinian is open by appointment for tours and will be open to the public regularly in February, which is Black History Month, said Leonard Cummings Sr., the restoration committee chairman.

Recognized as a local and state landmark in 2004, the Abyssinian was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The committee has received more than $160,000 in grants and donations.

Restoration committee leaders hope its inclusion in the Network to Freedom will attract visitors to Portland who are interested in the Underground Railroad and encourage contributions for the restoration. The Abyssinian is one of 16 sites on the Portland Freedom Trail.

a walking route of significant sites in Portland’s black history that was established this year.

“This is an extremely important building in Portland,” said Deborah Andrews, Portland’s historic preservation manager. “It expands our understanding of Portland’s history.”

AP-ES-10-27-07 1214EDT

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