The shop on Main Street in Mexico, east of Oswego, was many things — most recently an apartment building and a bar. But turn back the clock to the early 1800s, and you would be at a tin shop doubling as a meeting place for abolitionists.

“They would talk about gossip for a while, the news of the local people. Before they got done, Starr Clark would bring up the abolitionist movement,” said James Hotchkiss of the Mexico Historical Society.

Clark owned Starr Clark’s Tin Shop in 1832.

“He was the organizer. He was the engineer, or the conductor, of the Underground Railroad here in Mexico,” said Hotchkiss.

In Mexico, he says many were ready to fight back against slavery.

“If there was a meeting that was more than a few people, they would come up here, or there might be a local convention of abolitionists, a gathering or committee meeting or those kinds of things,” said Hotchkiss.

There’s evidence of several homes in town hiding escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad. Once runaways left Mexico and were in Oswego, they could board a boat to Canada.

“They all would get together and plan these escapes; they didn't just happen,” said Hotchkiss. “This was a hotbed of abolitionism. Probably because it was the last stop before they left Oswego to go to Kingston to freedom. We had a number of abolitionists other than Starr Clark. Asa Wing was a speaker [who] would go around the Northeast and New York State and preach about abolitionism.”

Hotchkiss also told stories of visits by Rochester native Frederick Douglass to Mexico.

Hotchkiss and fellow Mexico Historical Society member Allie Proud say that, when they grew up in Mexico, they weren’t taught this information in school. Now they say they work with the school district to educate students through tours.