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John Rankin House

Ripley · Brown County · Southern Ohio

An Underground Railroad station on a bluff above the Ohio River

National Historic LandmarkUnderground Railroad station

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.

Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
Location confidence: Verified entrance or visitor center
John Rankin House, 6152 Rankin Hill Rd, Ripley
Seasonal access: April 7 through October: Wednesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. Tours on the hour, and the last tour begins at 4 p.m.
Check current conditions: Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets: Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The hilltop home of an abolitionist family who helped enslaved people crossing from Kentucky, and a story that inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Built: 1828 by the Presbyterian minister and abolitionist Rev. John Rankin
Household: Rankin, his wife Jean and their thirteen children
Estimate: Rankin and his family are credited with helping more than 2,000 people escape slavery; some historians call the number hard to prove
Bounty: A reported $3,000 was offered for Rankin's capture
Also in Ripley: The John P. Parker House, home of a Black inventor and conductor
Landmark: National Historic Landmark since 1997

The story

John Rankin, born in Tennessee, moved to Ripley to live in a free state and to oppose slavery openly. In 1828 he built a modest brick house on a steep hill, later called Liberty Hill, overlooking the river and the Kentucky shore. From there he, his wife Jean and their thirteen children took in people who had crossed the Ohio in flight from slavery and passed them along to other stations. Rankin argued for immediate abolition rather than gradual emancipation, and the family lived under threats of violence and a reported $3,000 bounty. They are credited with helping more than 2,000 people, though that figure, and the popular tale of a lantern on a pole guiding fugitives, cannot be documented; the work was mostly secret.

The Rankins did not work alone. Free Black residents of Ripley and Kentucky were the network's backbone, and John P. Parker, a formerly enslaved man who became an inventor and foundry owner, guided hundreds across the river at great personal risk. Ohio was a free state, but its early Black Laws restricted the rights of Black residents, and kidnappers and slave catchers worked the river towns. Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the Rankins and heard the account of a woman who crossed the ice with a child in her arms, which she used for Eliza in Uncle Tom's Cabin. The house is restored to about 1840 and opened for guided tours.

The Lantern on the Hill

Ripley's people said that a lantern on a tall pole on Rankin's hill guided fugitives across the dark river. The light, the story goes, could be seen from the Kentucky shore, and it kept a promise: a family would take you in.

The house on the hill was real, and so was the danger. Confederate officers later called Ripley an 'abolitionist hellhole.'

Behind the legend

The house, the 1828 date, Rankin's abolitionism, the bounty and the visits of Harriet Beecher Stowe are well documented. The beacon is a tradition: Clio's entry notes that a lantern on a pole would have drawn slave catchers, and that the work was mostly secret. The number of people helped is an estimate, given as more than 1,000 in some sources and more than 2,000 in others, and it is hard to substantiate.

If you go

Climb the steps to the house, take the tour and then visit the John P. Parker House in Ripley to hear the story from the Black conductors.

Visiting

Status

Open seasonally

Managed by

Ohio History Connection

Hours

April 7 through October: Wednesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. Tours on the hour, and the last tour begins at 4 p.m.

Admission

Adults $10, children and students K to 12 $5; members free.

Phone

800-752-2705

Please note

Guided tours; the steps up the hill are steep.

Address

6152 Rankin Hill Rd, Ripley, OH 45167

Official information →Directions Find trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.