Modern-day gravesite, with recently installed bench (Photo – Michele Zack)
The gravesite of abolitionist Owen Brown in the foothills of Altadena has been officially accepted into the National Park Service’s prestigious Network to Freedom program, marking a major recognition of the site’s national historical significance.
By News Desk
The designation places the gravesite among more than 700 locations across the United States that honor the struggle against slavery and the enduring fight for human freedom.
Only a small number of Network to Freedom sites exist in the western United States, making the inclusion of the Owen Brown Gravesite especially notable. The program commemorates people, places, and stories connected to the Underground Railroad and the broader movement to abolish slavery, linking Altadena to a nationwide narrative of resistance and liberation.
The national recognition comes alongside growing local efforts to preserve Brown’s legacy. On Tuesday, February 27, 2024, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion introduced by Supervisor Kathryn Barger to nominate Owen Brown’s gravesite for designation as a Los Angeles County Historical Landmark.
Owen Brown was born on November 4, 1824, in Hudson, Ohio, one of twenty children in the family of famed abolitionist John Brown. He would later become the last surviving participant in his father’s 1859 raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, an event that intensified national tensions over slavery and helped propel the nation toward civil war.
In the 1880s, Owen Brown moved west, settling with his brother Jason in the foothills above what is now Altadena’s Meadows area. The remote location offered a sense of safety after decades of danger tied to his family’s abolitionist activities. Brown died there on January 8, 1889. When his funeral was held two days later in Pasadena, a local newspaper described the occasion as “a historic day in Pasadena,” underscoring the significance of his life and legacy even at the time.
Brown’s inclusion in the Network to Freedom highlights the long arc of the abolitionist movement, from clandestine efforts to expand escape routes along the Underground Railroad to the eventual end of legalized slavery following the Civil War. Although the Harpers Ferry raid failed in its immediate goal, the cause for which Owen Brown and others risked their lives would achieve legal victory six years later, at tremendous human cost, with the abolition of slavery in the United States.
Today, the Owen Brown Gravesite stands as a quiet but powerful reminder of that struggle. Its acceptance into the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom ensures that Altadena’s role in the national story of abolition, sacrifice, and the pursuit of equality will be preserved and shared with future generations.
Owen (long beard,rigt) and Jason Brown.
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