EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the latest report in an occasional series about the famed Lockport Cave and the flood of rumors that persist about underground Lockport. ••• The mansion on Summit Street, also known as the Francis Hitchins/Pound House and Mount Providence on early records, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is frequently mentioned by Lockport residents when discussing underground Lockport. It has been labeled the most asked about local house by historian Ann Marie Linnabery, assistant director of the Niagara County Historical Society.
325 Summit St., Lockport Dating from the early 1830s and constructed of large-block Gasport Limestone crafted by Irish canal stone smiths, 325 Summit St. was bordered on the north side by the Erie Canal.
Documents supporting the house's National Register listing contain interesting descriptions of a tunnel, hidden rooms and small compartments all connected to Underground Railroad activity, giving credibility to the site as a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center has Francis Hitchins, who lived at the house, recorded as an Underground Railroad (UGRR) agent. There is also a narrative that he traveled to Kentucky in 1861 to provide testimony that a former worker on his farm, Chancelor Livingstone, was a freed slave and this gave Mr.
Livingstone his freedom. Armed with this solid information, I entered the Summit Street house a few weeks ago looking for the secre.