Hoosier State Gem

The Levi and Catharine Coffin House in Fountain City, Ind., may seem off the beaten path for Civil War aficionados, but that was not the case for thousands of enslaved people in antebellum America, for whom it was a symbol of incredible hope—appropriately labeled the “Grand Central Station of the Underground Railroad” in the 1840s. Today the restored house and its barn are part of the Levi and Catharine Coffin State Historic Site, which also features an exceptional interpretive center that helps put in perspective the vital role the Coffin family played during the buildup to the Civil War.

Originally from North Carolina, Levi Coffin and his wife, Catharine, were Quakers who strongly opposed slavery and eventually moved to Indiana, where they would