Commemorating the abolitionists who lived in or had close ties to Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the Fitchburg Abolitionist Park educates visitors about the anti-slavery Abolitionist Movement and honors equality, diversity, and the fundamental human right: FREEDOM.

Conceived in 2017 by students in David Thibault-Muñoz’s summer First Year Experience (FYE 101) class at Mount Wachusett Community College, the park has been created through an all-volunteer community effort, engaging both the students and local citizens in its design and construction. The site for the park was donated by Fitchburg State University.

Beginning in the 1830s, Fitchburg residents participated in local, regional, and national antislavery movements. Multiple homes in the community, including that of Benjamin Farwell Snow, Jr., a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement, were stations or depots on the Underground Railroad. Fitchburg’s Trinitarian Church was established in 1843 as an antislavery church and beginning in 1854, nearly fifty Fitchburg abolition supporters emigrated to the Kansas territory to ensure Kansas would enter the Union as a free state.

The Park will include multiple interactive features including an augmented reality installation where images of abolitionists come to life to tell their stories and a mural reflecting Fitchburg’s role in the Abolitionist Movement and Underground Railroad. It will serve as gathering place for educational and interpretive programming and community events linking Fitchburg’s Abolitionist history to contemporary events.

Photo courtesy of the Friends of Fitchburg Abolitionist Park