Trolley spotlights quilts and history

Staff report

SALEM

The Quakertown Trolley and the United Quilt Guild will join forces this weekend at the guild’s biannual show, which will have the theme “Underground Railroad Quilts.”

The show runs from Friday through Sunday, and information is available at UnitedQuiltGuild.org.

On Saturday, the trolley will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., making stops at the quilt show at the Salem Community Center, the Kiwanis Antiques in the Park at Centennial Park, and, in the afternoon, the Burchfield Homestead on East Fourth Street. There is no cost for this shuttle, which will make the loop approximately every 20 minutes.

On Sunday, the Salem Underground Railroad tour will be given. Reservations for a 3 p.m. tour are $10 per person and can be made by calling 330-337-6733 and leaving a message.

On this 75-minute tour, the guide, dressed as a Salem Quaker, will take passengers back to the year 1856.

The homes are private and cannot be entered, but slides of them will be shown on a screen inside the trolley, as well as Underground Railroad hiding places, and several abolitionists who lived in or visited them.

The slides will also help clarify the historical information presented during the program.

Tour-goers will gain a better understanding of the plight of slaves, the working of the Underground Railroad, and the abolitionist movement that existed in Salem before the Civil War.

After the trolley tour, for an additional $2, passengers can receive a tour of Freedom Hall, which has displays on the Underground Railroad, Civil War, slavery, and the women’s rights movement.