Milton House Museum: Wisconsin’s Underground Railroad Inn

The Milton House Museum in Milton, Wisconsin, looks unusual before you even know its history. Joseph Goodrich built the hexagonal stagecoach inn in 1844, but the most important part of its story is hidden beneath it.

Milton House served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Its guided tour begins with everyday life at a busy stagecoach inn before revealing how the Goodrich family used the property to help freedom seekers traveling north.

I first toured Milton House nearly 10 years ago and recently returned to see how the experience had changed. This time, I learned more about its Underground Railroad history and saw a mural I hadn’t seen before. But following the route freedom seekers once traveled was still the part that stuck with me most.

Starting in the Goodrich Block

The tour began in Block One, the only original section of the five-unit Goodrich Block still standing. Blocks Two through Five collapsed in 1948, prompting the Milton Historical Society to purchase the property from the Goodrich family for $1 and begin restoring it.

Block One primarily operated as a storefront, so the room is set up like a general store with goods and equipment from the period.

This was where I learned more about Joseph Goodrich and how his family came to Milton. Goodrich arrived from New York in 1838, looking for a fresh start after an economic depression hurt his businesses back home. He operated a small inn and store before building Milton House.

The Goodrich family belonged to the Seventh Day Baptist Church and opposed slavery. Other Seventh Day Baptists settled in the area, and Milton developed into a strongly abolitionist community.

Curious Artifacts Inside the Goodrich Block

I’m always curious about the odd everyday objects inside historic buildings, and the Goodrich Block had several that caught my attention.

One of the first was a cheese-wheel cutter. How Wisconsin is that?

The communal toothpick stood out for all the wrong reasons. Made from a quill, it was reusable. Our guide told us that people passed it from one person to another around the table.

No, thank you.

I was also interested in an advertising clock with rotating cylinders that displayed different business ads. One promoted the harness business owned by Arthur B. Lee, a Black Civil War veteran who moved to Milton and established a successful shop with help from Ezra Goodrich.

Another artifact was a bell from a locomotive named the Joseph Goodrich. Our guide rang it so we could hear what people would have heard when the train came through town.

It was shockingly loud.

Touring the Hexagonal Stagecoach Inn

From the Goodrich Block, we continued into the hexagonal stagecoach inn. Its six-sided shape made it distinctive, but the design was practical too.

Six guest rooms occupied each floor and shared a central chimney. Most rooms had two windows, which helped with light and airflow during humid Wisconsin summers.

Goodrich built the inn from grout, an early concrete-like mixture of lime and aggregate. A model inside the museum provides a better look at the original property and how its different buildings connected.

What Was It Like Staying at Milton House?

Personal space apparently wasn’t part of the deal at a 19th-century stagecoach inn. Our guide told us that four to six strangers typically shared one guest room. On especially busy nights, as many as 12 people squeezed into the same space, sharing beds or sleeping on the floor.

Then there was the middle-of-the-night bathroom situation. Each room had chamber pots, which guests used without the benefit of privacy. The ceramic lids made enough noise that the inn provided “chamber pot hushers,” small pieces of fabric that muffled the clanging. But still…

Milton House and the Underground Railroad

After touring the inn, we entered a room with panels explaining the Fugitive Slave Act, abolition, and the Underground Railroad. I don’t remember this exhibit from my first visit, and it helped explain why reaching Wisconsin didn’t necessarily mean a freedom seeker was safe.

Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, freedom seekers could be captured in Northern states and returned to slavery. People who helped them also faced serious legal consequences.

I learned about another congregation willing to take that risk when I toured Town Clock Church in New Albany, Indiana, a site connected to Indiana’s Underground Railroad history.

Even in strongly abolitionist Milton, Joseph Goodrich had to keep his Underground Railroad activities secret. Strangers regularly came and went from the busy stagecoach inn while freedom seekers hid in a root cellar underneath it.

Following the Mural Downstairs

I didn’t know the museum had added a mural until I started down the staircase and saw it wrapping around the walls.

Commissioned in 2018 and completed in 2019, the mural follows a freedom seeker’s journey north. The story begins on a Southern plantation and continues down the stairs, showing freedom seekers, people who provided help along the route, and slave catchers.

Inside the Root Cellar

The cellar sits directly beneath the former ladies’ sitting room and dining area. People could be eating, talking, and conducting business upstairs while freedom seekers remained hidden below them.

Our guide told us the Goodrich family likely provided potato sacks rather than blankets for warmth. Blankets stored in a root cellar could raise questions if someone came downstairs, while potato sacks wouldn’t look unusual.

This was also where we learned about Andrew Pratt, the only freedom seeker known by name to have received help at Milton House.

Andrew Pratt’s Story

Because Underground Railroad activities had to remain secret, written records are limited. Andrew Pratt is the only freedom seeker helped at Milton House who is known by name. He escaped slavery, reached Milton with assistance from William Anson Goodrich, and became part of the community.

Pratt joined a local temperance organization called the Good Templars. Some members objected to admitting a Black man and worked to force him out. Ezra Goodrich defended Pratt and publicly challenged the organization over its actions. The group expelled Ezra, and several other members left in protest.

Pratt’s treatment showed that opposing slavery didn’t necessarily mean someone believed Black people deserved equal treatment.

Pratt eventually moved to Minnesota, where he owned land, operated a barbershop, married, and raised a family. I was glad the tour followed Pratt beyond Milton House instead of ending his story in the cellar.

That broader look at Pratt’s life reminded me of following Harriet Tubman’s story through Auburn, New York, where the historic sites focus on the home, family, and community she built after gaining her freedom.

Walking Through the Underground Passage

The passage between the cellar and pioneer cabin is about 45 feet long. National Park Service documentation describes the original tunnel as roughly three to five feet high.

The museum doesn’t know exactly when the tunnel was built or its original purpose, but its use as part of the Underground Railroad is documented.

During the museum’s restoration in the 1950s, workers enlarged the passage and lined it with masonry so visitors could walk through it. I could stand upright, but our guide showed us the original opening height at the doorway. You can still see the outline of how low it once was.

Even though the modern passage was lit and tall enough for me to walk through, I still hesitated for a second before entering. Following the route felt sobering after seeing how low the original passage had been. Freedom seekers would have traveled through a much tighter, darker space while trying to avoid capture.

Emerging Inside the Pioneer Cabin

The underground passage ends inside the pioneer cabin behind Milton House. The cabin predates the inn, was moved to the property before 1844, and later served as the inn’s kitchen.

Our guide explained how the cabin provided a discreet way for freedom seekers to enter and leave the property. A wagon arriving near a working kitchen was less likely to attract attention.

Is Milton House Museum Worth Visiting?

Yes, especially if you’re interested in Underground Railroad history, Wisconsin history, or unusual historic buildings. You don’t have to be a serious history buff to find the tour interesting, though.

The stagecoach-inn portion has enough quirky details to keep the tour from feeling like a history lecture, but what happened beneath the inn is the real reason to visit.

Milton House is a National Historic Landmark and part of the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom. I wouldn’t stop with an exterior photo of the hexagonal building. Take the guided tour so you can see the cellar and follow the passage for yourself.

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