NBC Action News
LAWRENCE, Kansas - It’s not unusual for perfect strangers to just drop by Dennis Dailey’s Lawrence home, and the former University of Kansas professor doesn’t mind it at all. In fact he likes sharing the history of his home, especially with the African American families who stop in.
Dailey’s home used to be a stop on the Underground Railroad.
'There’s joy and tears it’s just a amazing experience to watch them relate to what the underground railroad means to them," Dailey said.
The Miller House was built in 1858 by anti-slavery activist Robert Miller.
Today the five acre farm still has a country feel though it’s on 19th Street just east of downtown Lawrence.
Ironically the house once hosted Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill.
“He stopped here, he knew the Millers, that’s one of the reasons he didn’t burn the house down I think," said Dailey.
Quantrill raided Lawrence the next day burning down most of the town and killing more than 200. Now the home is a collection of the past and present and Dailey wants to make sure it stays that way even though some people would like to change that.
Dailey said, "A developer came in here and offered us an obscene amount of money and the intent was to bulldoze everything and put up apartments.”
Daily said he’ll turn the place into a park before he lets that happen.
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