The importance of this property is not simply because it is an 1850 brick house on remnants of the original McClew family farmstead, but because the contemporaneous barn behind the home contains an incredible relic of the nineteenth century. 

The McClew family traces its origins in the United States to eighteenth-century Scottish immigrants who eventually settled around Schenectady and Albany, New York. Following the construction of the Erie Barge Canal, members of the McClew family moved west and settled near the western shores of Lake Ontario.

A farm was established by Charles H. McClew, Sr., in 1840s, when he developed land further down the road from his father’s property. Upon his marriage to Anna Maria Libby, Charles began planning for a proper brick farmhouse on his newly cleared land. Along with the significant home, he also constructed an ice house, a smoke house, and a large barn. 

Around 1850, the McClew family became involved in a secret network of abolitionists, known as the Underground Railroad. These individuals worked together to help runaway slaves who were trying to escape from plantations in the southern United States to the protective safe haven of Canada.

There is a concealed room 13 feet beneath the floor of the McClew barn, which is believed to have been used as a temporary hiding place for those individuals escaping slavery. The room itself is a modest 8 feet by 10 feet, carefully built from stone and mortar, with an arched-brick ceiling that made it is a safe and secure place to hide the activities of the escapees. It is an important cultural relic that needs to be preserved for future generations.