YORK, Pa. — A lone man sits silently in his top hat and suit, keeping a watchful eye on Philadelphia Street in York. His hand clasps a lantern, one that perhaps signaled freedom seekers to his home in the darkness of night.
Unveiled just last year, the statue is the first in York County to depict a Black man; a successful businessman and Underground Railroad station master named William C. Goodridge.
"He is connected to just about everything that had to do with freedom, particularly in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," said Kelly Summerford, director of the William C. Goodridge Freedom Center and Underground Railroad Museum.
Born in Baltimore in 1806, Goodridge grew up in slavery. He was sent to York at the age of six, living with a reverend and his wife who taught him how to read and write as a young boy.
"He was a quick learner, and he was here to learn tanning," Summerford said.
He'd gain his freedom at the age of 16 and move to Lancaster County, where he trained as a barber.
"He came back to York and established himself as a barber, and later he turned a one-chair barbershop into the tallest and most important emporium in York, right there on the Square," Summerford said. "He can be credited for building the first skyscraper in York."
A staunch abolitionist, Goodridge used his properties to hide people fleeing slavery.
"He actually had people in the emporium as well as in his house," Summerford said.
A glass panel now covers the entrance to the home's basement, where a hand-dug hideaway protected freedom seekers during the day.
The term "Underground Railroad" refers to the system of safehouses that lead people to freedom, but Goodridge did use the actual railroad.
Goodridge owned railcars he used to transport goods across the region, one of which included a false floor and false walls that would house people on the run.
"It's amazing how his life could mirror so many of the other great African-Americans throughout time," Summerford said. "I could hold him with a Martin Luther King. I could hold him with a Malcolm X. I could hold him with some of the people who are out here now making change."
Tours of the William C. Goodridge Freedom Center & Underground Railroad Museum are available by appointment.