I too am interested in the current status of the Old Slave House. After a couple of years of trying to research my mother's family and getting frustrated that I wasn't finding anything, I learned that my great-great grandfather had married a woman named Sarilda, a slave in Georgia, who was emancipated in 1838, after coming to Illinois with her mother "Old Rachel" and her sisters. The family was separated after that, but several of them remained in the Saline/ Gallatin area. Two of Rachel's daughters,(Sarilda's sisters), Mary and Rachel Mixen,ended up listed on the 1850 census as living with John and Sina Taylor Crenshaw and Rachel disappeared from record. Sarilda and another sister, Sabree lived with my GGgrandfather, Anderson Pumphrey, but nothing more is known about what happened to their mother,Rachel.Anderson and his brother Peter came from Georgia to Illinois in the 1820's, and are listed as "free colored male", although their father Isham Lee Pumphrey was white. I am trying to learn if more of my ancestors were involved in the history of Hickory Hill and would like to take my children to see this place. It is part of my family's heritage and I hope that it will be reopened.