A 174-year-old fugitive slave chapel and historic landmark on the move

After 174years, London's historic fugitive slave chapel has a new home.

On Tuesday, under police escort, with dozens of workers in hard hats blocking streets and lifting low-hanging hydro wires, the historiclandmark moved slowlythrough the streets of London, Ont., from its currentaddress on Grey Street in SoHo, to its new address at Fanshawe Pioneer Village.It was originally located onThames Street near downtown.

The delicate move took hours, as the ancient-looking chapel wascarried on steel beams by a tractor trailer down Hamilton Rd, to Highbury Ave and then to Fanshawe Park Road. Along the way,people stopped to watch, take photographs and justmarvelat a feat of modern engineering.

"That is quite something," said Ray McGonigle. "It's unbelievable to watch."

McGoniglesaid he had been following the coverage of the chapel in the local media and decided to come see the building being moved for himself from the parking lot of a convenience store along the route.

"I knew it was today and I just thought I'd come down to Hamilton Road to see it," he said."I've seen them move houses in the country before, but never in the city."

"It's very valuable to have it, to keep it and fix it up."

The weather beaten chapel, with its peeling paint andramshacklewalls roughlypatched with scraps plywood, may not look valuable, but the building has a rich history.

Dating back to 1848, the chapel was the Londonstop on the underground railroad, a clandestine network of Black and white activists who helped slaves in United States escape to find a new life in Canada.

When developers threaten to knock it down to make way for a parking lot, a number of community groups stepped in to help save the historic building, raising enough money to get it moved, so it could be spared from the wrecking ball.

"It's good to know history is being preserved today, that Black history is being preserved," said Nikisha Evans."It's Canadian history."

"Persons coming here for freedom, they had a safe harbour to come to, which is Canada right? It's a safe place for folks to come to and be able to have a fresh start."

Evans isthe president of the London chapter of the Congress of Black Women, one of the many community groups that helped raise money to preserve the historic chapel. On Tuesday, she brought her daughter Lanea Evans and their friend Kyle Seymourfor the rareexperience of watching the historic building slowly move through the normally bustling Hamilton Road.

"She's doing Black history for school next year and she's here to take photos," she said. "It's good to pass the message down. It's why we preserve it."

Passing the message down is exactly what community organizers have in store for the historic chapel. After the building is deposited on its new foundation at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village, it will be restored in the spring.

Next fall, officials hope to use it as a living classroom, to teach people about the brave men and women who escaped slavery and helped others by smuggling them to Canada.

"It's so touching for me. It means so much to me," Evans said. "This is so important to preserve history."