Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum — Attraction in Memphis

We went to slave haven while on a vacation to Nashville. We drove 3.5 hours to Memphis just to see this place. Upon arrival there was a group (10-15 people) of Spanish speaking vacationers. They were very polite, one man even walked around and greeted every other person outside of their group with "Buenos Diaz" and a handshake. The sign says the museum opens at 10am... 10:20 rolls around and two workers finally show up. They let us in the museum around 10:25 and demand cash even though there's a sign saying they accept credit and debit cards on the outside of their building. We paid and they told us to walk through to bedrooms and down the hallway into a room of African instruments, as this is the self guided portion of the tour. There were two workers, a younger lady appearing to be in her 20's - early 30's and another lady who stated she was in her mid 40's. After I completed the self guided tour I waited in the hallway and observed the Spanish speaking group and the younger worker interact. One of the ladies in the group asked if she could bring a chair as she was elderly and could not stand for more than 20 minutes at a time. The worker was short with her, and upon the visitor asking again, because she didn't receive a clear answer the worker snapped at her, rolled her eyes, and said "I just said someone will bring you a chair." After everyone was checked in and completing the self guided portion the two workers went to the office to "speak" (yell) at each other. I was observing them through the doorway and when the younger worker saw me watching she stepped back out of my sight. When they finally started the tour the younger worker told everyone to huddle in the hallway in three rows, "short" people in the first row, "medium" people in the middle row, and "tall" people in the back. Well, when everyone couldn't huddle around a group of photos she wanted to talk about (because there were 20+ of us in a small hallway) she snapped yet again and told us all we needed to huddle around the pictures. A person from the Spanish speaking group informed her they had a translator, and asked if she could pause after a sentence so the translator could translate to the rest of the group. She responded with "No how this is going to work is I'm going to say three or four things then I'll pause". Once she realized we weren't all going to fit she said she was going to split our group in two (which was a great idea). She took the Spanish speaking group, and we got the older gal of the two. We started our tour and about two minutes in more people walked in... so she stopped and took their money and added them to the group... this happened at least three times. The rest of the tour was great until we were waiting in the kitchen for the other group to see the basement. During this time our tour guide went on a rant about modern day racism, and things that happened while Obama was running for president. Then ended her rant with "the more things change, the more things stay the same"... making it extremely awkward for the 10+ white people in the room trying to learn about history, making it seem like she was implying we were all racist. Overall, the tour was okay. The staff was rude, in general. And they had no patience for the diverse group that came to tour their facility. I wouldn't reccomend visiting slave haven, and I regret driving seven hours round trip...

A very interesting place to visit with a cool old historical home which was once part of the underground railroad. As previously stated, the ground work for a great museum is here but the execution is off here at the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. My experience- I got lucky and happened to show up right before 3, which was the next tour time. ( I was unaware that there were specific time slots for the tours) People were gathered outside in the backyard waiting and after a few min a woman came out and announced they were ready for the next group, but that the credit card machine was out of order due to a recent storm in the area. (Coincidence??? seems many others were denied the chance to use a credit/debit card also) When it was our turn at the counter to pay the woman was speaking very fast, and charged us for something that I was not sure about- Maybe the 3 masks she handed me and required us to wear?? Anyway, the total was more than expected and she was very off putting.

Then we were directed to go down the hall and wait in a room. Many people were confused on where to go,due to the woman's scrambled directions. Then when everyone was checked in the tour began.A man ( who was much more pleasant than the previous woman) crammed us all in the hallway of this small house and turned on a recording played on a blue tooth speaker.

Each wall of the hallway had a bunch of picture frames with various historical artifacts hanging up, and the speaker on the recording was discussing them. The man would direct our attention with a pointer and interject every once in a while. Not very effective when there are about 20 people in the group. You get no chance to look at or read anything on your own. Then we went in another room to learn about some different underground railroad facts. I found this part very interesting. We visited a bedroom, and also the kitchen before going to the cellar to visit the area the slaves were hidden in.

All in all, an ok experience, but could have been better organized and presented...

I do not normally send feedback but I felt this was a necessity. Today, a group of my friends and I visited the Slave Haven museum. We planned our afternoon out because we had friends come from out of town to visit this historical museum in celebration of Black History Month. Upon visiting the website, there were hours for today, Feb 19th were 1000 to 4pm and the cost listed. Upon arriving, we went to the back door according to the signs. There were multiple signs on the back door with tour hours (1 per hour), a Visa and Mastercard sign and various other notices. We attempted to go in and the lady who worked there told us to wait outside, it was 240pm. She came back out at 250pm and asked if we were on the list. She had a piece of paper in her hand. We were not because we didn't know we had to sign up so we asked her if we could still attend. She said she wanted to take care of the other people who signed up first. So we politely waited our turn. Another group walked and tried to enter the door and she told then to wait outside, then came out 2 min later and yelled at us asking "who just slammed the door?!" Everyone looked confused. It was finally our turn to go in. When we got in and went to pay, she told us we can only pay in cash because she already tallied up the credit sales, and closed up the credit card machine. So we asked why did she close it already when there were still a tour? And also she could have told us that when she asked us if we were on the list. She said she told everybody on the list already beforehand to bring cash. There was no apology or concern for us.

Bottom line, it was disrespectful, unprofessional, and unfortunate experience for those who were wanting to experience a once in a lifetime...