John Schaaf opens the doors to what looks like a closet with three shelves, filled with boxes and papers. But a gentle push on the wall reveals a false back and a small, squat room with a sloped ceiling.

The dark room is filled with dirt, wood chips and insulation. It appears no one has used it in years. But in the early 1800s, the room was likely a temporary safe haven for escaped slaves traveling North through the Underground Railroad.

Schaaf said that's the story he heard three years ago when he bought the property on North Union Street for his accounting firm, which is attached to the house. He said the idea that the house could have played a part in such a large part of the county's history is "cool."

"I think it's a rare thing to own a piece of history such as this house," he said. "It makes me feel lucky to have been a part of the history of this house and the Underground Railroad."

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The home originally was owned by Dr. Jacob Pfaff, who was part of Westfield's involvement in the Underground Railroad, a complex network of Americans who operated in small pockets to give food, shelter and other assistance to thousands of African Americans attempting to gain their freedom from southern slaveholders during the early and mid-1800s.

Westfield was part of the Underground Railroad's central route through Indiana, which wound through Madison, Columbus, and Indianapolis before reaching Westfield and continuing to South Bend. At least 20 other Indiana counties served as stops on other routes, the most well-known of which passed through Levi Coffin's Fountain City home in Wayne County.

Nicole Kobrowski, spokesperson for the Westfield-Washington Historical Society, said "everybody was on board to help the slaves" after Westfield was first founded in 1834 by Asa Bales, Simon Moon and Ambrose Osborne, Quakers from North Carolina, same as Coffin.

She said that changed when state and federal laws against aiding slaves harshened in the 1850s and the Friends Meeting House split into two groups. One group remained as the Friends Meeting house. The group that wanted to continue aiding the escaped slaves, led by Bales, created the Anti-slavery Friends Meeting House.

Records and oral history indicate that Westfield had at least nine homes — including the Plaff and Bales homes — known as "depots" or "stations," where escape slaves could seek refuge: The Howe Homestead, the home of Levi Pennington, Riley Moon's house, a barn built by Asaph Hiatt, the Lindley Farm, and the Tomlinson family home.

Deanna Robbins and her family live in the house, also on North Union Street, that was owned by Bales and sits across from Asa Bales Park. Robbins said her family had lived in a historic home in Carmel, so when they moved to Westfield and were looking into buying the house, its history was "a selling point."

So far, the family has discovered one possible hiding space: a cellar with a small, rectangular entrance inside the house that Robbins said could easily be covered by a piece of furniture or a rug.

Robbins said they are working to renovate the house and that it's exciting to be part of bringing a house with so much energy and character back to life.

Kobrowski said the family's home, the Pfaff home and the Lindley Farm are the only three known "stations" that are still standing in their original locations. The other six have been moved or destroyed.

And she said while there were likely more stops, it's hard to tell because there aren't many first-hand accounts of the "conductors" and the help they gave to escaped slaves.

Her husband Michael Kobrowski, the historical society's curator, said that's because those activities were illegal at the time. He said the participants had to be secretive — anyone who gave aid to the escaping slaves did so knowing that they risked being fined or arrested.

Jeannie Regan-Dinius, a special projects director in the historic preservation and archeology division of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said Westfield's involvement in the Underground Railroad offers a chance to put history in perspective.

Regan-Dinius said the split between the two meeting houses and the fact that Noblesville was "pro-South" while people in Westfield were aiding escaped slaves illustrates that while many people have a romanticized view of the time period, things weren't that simple. Not everyone who lived North of the Mason-Dixon Line was as willing to help the slaves as Bales, Pfaff and other abolitionists.

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