Built nearly two centuries ago in the early 1840s, the Hubbard House in northeast Ohio’s Ashtabula County is old.
Docent Annie Reynolds is not.
“I learned in third grade about the Underground Railroad, and last year I came to the Hubbard House on a Girl Scout trip and I just loved it so much,” the 11-year-old said.
Now, as part of the Hubbard House’s junior docent program, she leads tours through rooms restored to their 19th century glory, from a study adorned with black and white portraits to a dining room set with ornate china.
“Back in the day, there was no technology,” Annie said, pausing in the parlor. “So they would use pianos and games to entertain the elders.”
In the past three years, more than 20 junior docents like Annie have led tours through the building. It’s a concentrated effort to pass local history down to the next generation.
A final stop on the Underground Railroad
In the years before the Civil War, the Hubbard House and the property surrounding it offered more than fine living quarters — it sheltered people escaping slavery.
William and Katharine Hubbard housed hundreds of freedom seekers, helping them hide until they could catch a cargo ship to cross Lake Erie.
“If you could get to Ashtabula, Ohio, you better believe that you're headed on your way to Canada for freedom,” said Sally Bradley, executive director of the Hubbard House.
Abolitionism, she said, was part of the county’s identity.
“They even said you can get a sinner out of hell faster than you could a runaway slave out of Ashtabula County,” she said.
But over the decades, that identity was neglected. After serving as a women’s social club, temporary kindergarten and even the local parks and recreation department, the Hubbard House sat vacant for years. It was scheduled to be demolished in 1979.
A small group of people came together to stop that from happening, including William and Katharine’s great-great-grandson Thomas Hubbard. Together, they turned the building into the museum it is today.
In an effort to prevent history from repeating itself, Bradley decided to teach kids like Annie to be junior docents.
“If everyone is of age and older, who's going to be able to teach the younger ones?” she said. “That's what we're here for. That's what the program is all about.”
The junior docent program
Currently, about seven young people are trained to give tours of the Hubbard House.
Brothers Jaiven and Jasiah Pope are Bradley’s newest recruits.
The high schoolers are still in training, but they’re building a solid foundation: Already, they can present on the man who built the Hubbard House brick by brick.
“Uncle Jake wasn't just a regular runaway slave,” Jaiven said. “He had skills and trades. He was a brick maker and a mason.”
“He was found by the Hubbard House and he used his trade to work on the house and became part of history,” Jasiah added.
For him, learning about the past outside of the classroom makes history feel like more than passages from a textbook.
“You compare your history you learned in school with stuff you learned here and you can see it all kind of connect,” he said.
Bradley says that’s exactly what she wants kids to take away from the junior docent program.
“[It’s about] knowing your history right in your own backyard and something that you can be proud of… and how two different cultures came together for one cause and that was freedom,” she said.
Those lessons from the past are still relevant today, Bradley said. She hopes the junior docent program ensures they won’t be forgotten in the future.
“Our hashtag is against slavery then,” she said, “against oppression now.”
