FIRST - Black Congregation in Maine - Portland, Maine - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

Bronzes plaques embedded in a concrete base and set in the sidewalk mark this location on the Portland Freedom Trail. The trail is: "Dedicated to the countless thousands of men and women who fled the bonds of slavery but were recaptured or died at the hands of their pursuers before they reached the safe embrace of the Underground Railroad."

The monument contains a bronze relief image of a conductor leading runaway slaves via the underground railroad at night. It is inscribed:

Below is a bronze plaque which has an image of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and the inscription:

THE ABYSSINIAN CHURCH
73 NEWBURY STREET WAS THE MAJOR
HUB OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD IN MAINE AND BECAME THE SOCIAL CENTER FOR PORTLAND'S AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY ___________________________________
BUILT IN 1828, THE CHURCH IS THE THIRD OLDEST AFRICAN
AMERICAN CHURCH STILL STANDING IN THE U.S. AND
THE FIRST BLACK CONGREGATION IN MAINE, IT BECAME
THE FOURTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN PORTLAND.
REUBEN RUBY PURCHASED THE LAND FOR THE CHURCH
AND HIS SON, FIREFIGHER WILLIAM WILBERFORCE RUBY,
SAVED THE BUILDING IN THE FIRE Of 1866 BY WETTING
IT DOWN.

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