The National Underground Railroad Freedom Centre in Cincinnati (NURFC), Ohio, US, is on schedule to open its doors to the public later this year.

The $110m centre is 90 per cent complete and hopes to receive its first guests during August.

Consisting of three pavilions, the 158,000sq ft centre will form a pivotal part of the $2bn redevelopment of Cincinnati’s central riverfront.

The centre will celebrate the inter-racial cooperation of Americans during the slave years and will exhibit the stories of hundreds of people who escaped slavery during the period.

The centre will host a number of exhibitions, including the Brothers of Borderland – an interactive environmental theatre experience, focusing on the Underground Railroad heroes of the local region.

Bob Harness, vice president of Jack Rouse Associates, the exhibit designer, said: “When designing NURFC, we looked at facilities such as the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Tolerance for inspiration.

“We felt that, as wonderful as they are, those institutions went right to the brink of asking you to take a personal stake in the issue, but ultimately did not ask.

"We saw an opportunity for the Freedom Centre to take the next step, to suggest that there are current issues of freedom that involve you and are worth stepping forward and doing something, just as the people on the Underground Railroad did.”

The Underground Railroad – a system of cooperation across the racial divide – arose as a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the South. Details: www.freedomcenter.org