Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park includes a visitor center and memorial landscape. The Park was developed by the Maryland Departments of Natural Resources and Business and Economic Development, in cooperation with the National Park Service.
Mahan Rykiel Associates worked closely with the architect to develop the site design which provides a meaningful overlay for the story of Harriet Tubman’s journey to freedom. Organized to suggest this journey, the site progression and building exhibits are oriented south to north. A series of interpretive stations (“Living with the Land”, “Concealment”) describe her struggle through elements of the landscape and illustrate how the natural landscape was inextricably linked to her extraordinary endeavor.
The Center is a key destination linking the Underground Railroad Scenic Byway to other national heritage sites. The new visitor center anticipates connecting up to 75,000 yearly visitors with the vast ecology of the surrounding Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. The Center opened in March 2017 and will serve as a national model for sustainable and environmentally responsible design.
