The Kelton House Museum & Garden looks like a gracious 1852 Greek Revival mansion — and holds a heroic secret: the Kelton family sheltered freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, hiding them in the barn and cistern of their Town Street home.
Operated by the Junior League of Columbus, the museum preserves the house with remarkable original family furnishings — a rare thing in house museums — and interprets both the elegance and the abolitionist courage of the Keltons, whose son Oscar served in the Civil War and whose story threads through the tours.
The restored Victorian garden behind the house is one of downtown’s loveliest green surprises, and the museum’s programs keep the Underground Railroad history vivid for Columbus schoolchildren.
Beautiful house, brave family, essential story. The Kelton House rewards every visitor.
