The
James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home, one of two homes
known as the James Whitcomb Riley House on the
National Register
of Historic Places, is a historic building in the Lockerbie Square
Historic District
of Indianapolis, Indiana
at 528 Lockerbie Street. It was named a
National Historic
Landmark in 1962.
History
An Indianapolis baker, John R. Nickum, had the building built in
1872. Nickum had the money to build the house as he had supplied
the
Union Army in Indianapolis with
hardtack, a form of cracker despised by
soldiers, during the
Civil War.
Nickum's daughter, Magdalena, and her husband Charles Holstein, a
lawyer, would possess it when, in 1893, they invited noted poet
James Whitcomb Riley to live
with them. Riley had a bedroom on the second floor in this building
for 23 years, helping the Holsteins with expenses.
After Riley and the Holsteins died,
William Fortune bought it in 1916. He would
later, presumably at the behest of
Booth Tarkington, transfer ownership to the
James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Association five years later. Due to
so little time having passed from Riley's death to its
preservation, most of the items of the household items of Riley's
day, except for the kitchen, remain within the domicile.
Due to Riley's fame, it is the best known of the domiciles in the
Lockerbie Square Historic District. The
Riley Children's Foundation
operates the museum. Noted items are the
wicker chair which he frequently used after his
stroke in 1911, and the bed on which he died
on
July 22 1916.
Structure notes
The structure is a two-story brick house on a stone foundation and
full basement that is considered an excellent example of
Italianate architecture typical of
the neighborhood's homes built in the 1860s and 1870s.
Slate shingles cover a
roof which has wide overhanging eaves and decorated brackets, and
is low-pitched hipped. Other features of the house are a central
tower with oval-glazed paired doors, and masonry crowns atop tall
narrow windows and inverted U-shaped windows on the highest floor.
Water pumps took water from the well to tanks within the attic that
could emit water to different rooms in the house. The interior
woodwork is all hand-carved solid hardwoods. The lighting was
originally fueled by gas, but is now powered by electricity.
Speaking tubes were installed so that the staff could receive
orders in the kitchen from other parts of the house.
Gallery
File:Riley museum nps pic.JPG|James Whitcomb Riley House in 1975
File:James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home bust.JPG|Bust of Riley outside the home
File:James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home marker.JPG|Marker denoting the home's NHL status
File:James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home rear.JPG|Rear of the House
See also
References
- and
- Conn, Earl L. My Indiana:101 Places to See
(Indiana Historical Society Press,
2006). pg.88, 89
- Bodenhamer, David. The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis
(Indiana University Press, 1994)
pg.839
- http://www.lockerbiesquare.org/pdf/walkingtour.pdf
- Lockerbie Square People's Club
- Conn 88, 89
- Bodenhamer 839
- Lockerbie Square Historic District-Indianapolis: A
Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
- Bodenhamer pg.839
- Conn pg.88, 89
External links
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