Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin (Rome City, Indiana)

Last updated
Gene Stratton Porter Cabin
GSP Cabin in Fall - DSC 9395 res.jpg
Gene's Cabin at Wildflower Woods
USA Indiana location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationSoutheast of Rome City off State Road 9, near corner of County Road 850 North and Pleasant Point
Nearest city Rome City, Indiana
Coordinates 41°28′51″N85°20′55″W / 41.48083°N 85.34861°W / 41.48083; -85.34861
Area10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built1913 (1913)
Architect Gene Stratton-Porter
Architectural style Rustic
NRHP reference No. 74000015 [1]
Added to NRHPJune 27, 1974

The Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, known as the Cabin at Wildflower Woods and the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site, is the former home of Gene Stratton-Porter, a noted Indiana author, naturalist, and nature photographer. The two-story, fourteen-room cabin, which was built in 1914, is located at Sylvan Lake near Rome City in Noble County, Indiana. Stratton-Porter lived full-time in the cabin from 1914 through 1919, then relocated to homes in California, where she continued to write and founded a movie studio. She returned to Wildflower Woods in Rome City for brief visits until her death in 1924. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Contents

Stratton-Porter began her literary career in 1900 and wrote several books while living at the historic cabin. These included novels, Michael O'Halloran (1915) and A Daughter of the Land (1918); a book of nature studies, Homing with the Birds (1919); and Morning Face (1916), a children's book. Her Father's Daughter (1921) was published shortly after Stratton-Porter moved to California. Scenes for a moving picture adaptation of Stratton-Porter's book, The Harvester (1911), were filmed on location at Wildflower Woods in 1927.

History

In 1912, after the Limberlost Swamp was drained and developed for commercial purposes, Gene Stratton-Porter, a noted Indiana author, naturalist, and nature photographer, made the decision to move from her Limberlost Cabin in Geneva, Indiana, to a new location for inspiration for her writing projects. She initially purchased a small home on the north side of Sylvan Lake near Rome City in Noble County, Indiana, about 85 miles (137 km) from her cabin in Geneva. It served as a temporary residence while she looked for property to build a year-round home at the lake. Stratton-Porter hoped that a lakeside home would provide more privacy and a new venue for her to observe wildlife. [2] [3] She had first visited Sylvan Lake in the mid-1880s to attend the Island Park Assembly. It was also where she first met Charles D. Porter, whom she married in 1886. With the wealth she had attained from her successful writing career, Stratton-Porter used profits from her books to purchase wooded property overlooking the lake. Her estate home eventually encompassed about 120 acres (49 hectares) of land. [4] [5]

In 1913 Stratton-Porter helped design and build a fourteen-room lakeside home. She named the new two-story, cedar-log cabin "Wildflower Woods," although she also referred to it as the "Limberlost Cabin" because of its similarity to her previous home. [3] [6] [7] In addition to assisting with cabin's construction, Stratton-Porter also wrote Laddie (1913). [8]

Stratton-Porter moved into the cabin at Wildflower Woods in February 1914 and lived there on a full-time basis until 1919. [9] [10] Her husband, Charles, who remained at their home in Geneva, commuted to Sylvan Lake on weekends. Stratton-Porter's daily routine at Wildflower Woods included working on writing projects in the morning. She also worked with Frank Wallace, a tree surgeon who later became Indiana's state etymologist, to develop the grounds of her estate into a private wildlife sanctuary. Stratton-Porter was involved in planting about 90 percent of the more than 14,000 trees, wildflowers, vines, and shrubs on her property, including vegetable and flower gardens and an orchard behind the house. [11] [12] The natural setting along the lake provided her with the privacy she desired, at least initially; however, her continued success as an author brought unwanted visitors and trespassers to her woodland retreat. [4] [13]

Stratton-Porter had intended to spend the remainder of her life at Wildflower Woods, but it eventually attracted too many uninvited visitors. [14] [15] She moved to California in 1919, and never returned to live at Wildflower Woods on a full-time basis. Stratton-Porter retained ownership of the Indiana property and returned for periodic visits until her death in California in 1924. [9] [16] [17]

Several of Stratton-Porter's books were published during her six-year residency at Wildflower Woods. Between 1914 and 1920 she published two novels, Michael O'Halloran and A Daughter of the Land (1918); a book of nature studies, Homing with the Birds (1919); and Morning Face (1916), a children's book. Her Father's Daughter (1921) was published shortly after her move to California. [18] In 1927 scenes for a film adaptation of Stratton-Porter's book, The Harvester (1911), were filmed on location at Wildflower Woods. [19] In 1940 the Gene Stratton-Porter Association purchased Wildflower Woods from Stratton-Porter's daughter, Jeannette Porter Meehan, the sole heir of her estate. In 1946 the association donated 13 acres (5.3 hectares) of property to the State of Indiana, including the cabin, its formal gardens, orchard, and a pond. The present-day Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site of nearly 150 acres (61 hectares) includes 20 acres (8.1 hectares) that were part of her original estate. [9] [20] [21]

The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites maintains and operates the Sylvan Lake property, which includes a visitor center, Stratton-Porter's cabin, and grounds. It is open to the public from April through December. The grounds are open daily from dawn until dusk; guided tours of the first floor of the fourteen-room home are available for a small admission charge. The site also hosts special events throughout the year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. [6] [18] [22]

In May 1999 Stratton-Porter's descendants returned her remains and those of her only daughter, Jeannette Porter Meehan, to Wildflower Woods for burial. The graves of Stratton-Porter and Meehan are in the woods near the cabin. It was the author's wish to have a tree planted to mark her gravesite; she is buried near her favorite tree [9] [23] [24]

Description

Front of the Cabin in Wildflower Woods Cabin in Wildflower Woods.jpg
Front of the Cabin in Wildflower Woods

The design of the Sylvan Lake cabin was inspired by the Forestry Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which the Porters visited in 1893, [25] The Sylvan Lake cabin closely resembles Stratton-Porter's Limberlost Cabin at Geneva. [18] The exterior of the fourteen-room, two-story cabin was built with Wisconsin white cedar-logs on a stone foundation. The home also includes an L-shaped, two-story porch overlooking the lake. Another two-story porch was constructed across the home's rear facade. The second-story porches were screened to provide open-air sleeping rooms when the weather was warm enough. The property eventually included about 150 acres (61 hectares) of land and featured a formal flower garden, orchards, and a small pond. [18] [26]

The cabin's interior provided living spaces and workspaces for Stratton-Porter's literary projects. The first floor includes an entrance hall, a living room, dining room, library, kitchen, conservatory, and a photographic darkroom. The entrance hall and dining room were covered in wild cherry-wood panels. The living room's stone fireplace, one of three on the first floor, contains a number of carved stone Aztec Indian heads which were brought from Mexico by Mr. Porter. The second floor has seven bedrooms, one and a half baths, and sleeping rooms above the porch. The home was initially lit with gaslights. Electric lights were installed after Stratton-Porter's move to California in 1919. [18] [27] [28]

The present-day cabin, which the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites operates as a historic house museum, includes Stratton-Porter memorabilia, many pictures that she colored by hand, her reference books, and pottery that she collected over the years. Built-in cabinetry houses her various collections. In addition to the cabin, visitors may explore the site's formal garden, as well as wooded paths and a nearby wetlands and prairie site that are undergoing restoration. [29] [22] Stratton-Porter used the inspiration that she received from the woods around the premises for her nature studies, writing, and photographs. Some of her furniture and other belongings are on display in the cabin, reflecting how she preferred to live her life. [30]

Notes

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ Judith Reick Long (1990). Gene Stratton-Porter: Novelist and Naturalist. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. pp.  195–96. ISBN   0871950529.
  3. 1 2 Ray E. Boomhower (2000). Destination Indiana: Travels Through Hoosier History. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. p. 193. ISBN   0871951479.
  4. 1 2 Linda C. Gugin and James E. St. Clair, ed. (2015). Indiana's 200: The People Who Shaped the Hoosier State. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. p. 334. ISBN   978-0-87195-387-2.
  5. ↑ Barbara Olenyik Morrow (2010). Nature's Storyteller: The Life of Gene Stratton-Porter. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. pp. 4, 36–41, and 95. ISBN   978-0-87195-284-4.
  6. 1 2 "Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin "The Cabin in Wildflower Wood", Rome City (Noble County)" (PDF). Travels in Time: Hoosiers and the Arts. Indianapolis: DHPA. Retrieved April 12, 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ Pamela J. Bennett, ed. (September 1996). "Gene Stratton-Porter" (PDF). The Indiana Historian. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau: 5, 8, 11. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  8. ↑ Long, p. 199.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Andrea Neal (2016). Road Trip: A Pocket History of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. p. 129. ISBN   9780871953957.
  10. ↑ Boomhower, p. 188.
  11. ↑ Long, pp. 196–97.
  12. ↑ Morrow, pp. 86, 95, and 99.
  13. ↑ Bennett, ed., pp. 7, 11–12.
  14. ↑ Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 335.
  15. ↑ Long, p. 237.
  16. ↑ Long, pp. 220–21, 240–41.
  17. ↑ In 1923 Stratton-Porter offered to sell Wildflower Woods to the State of Indiana to establish a state nature preserve, but representatives of the state government did not respond. See Bennett, ed., p. 9.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 "Indiana State Historic Architectural and Archaeological Research Database (SHAARD)" (Searchable database). Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology. Retrieved April 12, 2018.Note: This includes Thomas Gross (n.d.). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin" (PDF). Retrieved April 12, 2018. and Accompanying photographs.
  19. ↑ Eric Grayson (Winter 2007). "Limberlost Found: Indiana's Literary Legacy in Hollywood". Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. 19 (1). Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society: 44. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  20. ↑ Boomhower, p. 195.
  21. ↑ Morrow, pp. 139 and 161.
  22. 1 2 Morrow, pp. 161–62.
  23. ↑ Boomhower, p. 194.
  24. ↑ "Gene Stratton-Porter". Waymarking. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  25. ↑ Bennett, ed., pp. 5 and 8.
  26. ↑ Morrow, p. 161.
  27. ↑ Long, pp. 195–96. See also: Bob Vila (1994). Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of the Midwest and Great Plains. Lintel Press. p. 153. ISBN   9780688124953.
  28. ↑ All of the electricity was sent through the cabin in electrical conduits, with the closest wires being a couple of hundred feet away. See Bell Telephone News, Volume 3. Chicago Telephone Company. 1913. p. 23. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  29. ↑ "Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site Rome City, Indiana". Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site Rome City, Indiana. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  30. ↑ "Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin". Indiana State Museum. Archived from the original on May 11, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geneva, Indiana</span> Town in Indiana, United States

Geneva is a town in Wabash Township, Adams County, Indiana. The population was 1,293 at the time of the 2010 census. Geneva is the location of the Limberlost Cabin, the home of writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter from 1895-1913.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rome City, Indiana</span> Town in Indiana, United States

Rome City is a town in Orange Township, Noble County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 1,361 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernie Pyle</span> American war correspondent and writer

Ernest Taylor Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the columns he wrote as a roving human-interest reporter from 1935 through 1941 for the Scripps-Howard newspaper syndicate that earned him wide acclaim for his simple accounts of ordinary people across North America. When the United States entered World War II, he lent the same distinctive, folksy style of his human-interest stories to his wartime reports from the European theater (1942–44) and Pacific theater (1945). Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his newspaper accounts of "dogface" infantry soldiers from a first-person perspective. He was killed by enemy fire on Iejima during the Battle of Okinawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Stratton-Porter</span> American writer and naturalist (1863–1924)

Gene Stratton-Porter, born Geneva Grace Stratton, was an American writer, nature photographer, and naturalist from Wabash County, Indiana. In 1917 Stratton-Porter urged legislative support for the conservation of Limberlost Swamp and other wetlands in Indiana. She was also a silent film-era producer who founded her own production company, Gene Stratton Porter Productions, in 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limberlost Swamp</span> Historic wetland in Indiana, United States

The Limberlost Swamp in the eastern part of the present-day U.S. state of Indiana was a large, nationally known wetlands region with streams that flowed into the Wabash River. It originally covered 13,000 acres (53 km2) of present-day Adams and Jay counties. Parts of it were known as the Loblolly Marsh, based on a word by local Native Americans for the sulphur smell of the marsh gas. The wetlands had mixed vegetation and supported a rich biodiversity, significant for local and migrating birds and insects, as well as other animals and life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grouseland</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

Grouseland, the William Henry Harrison Mansion and Museum, is a National Historic Landmark important for its Federal-style architecture and role in American history. The two-story, red brick home was built between 1802 and 1804 in Vincennes, Indiana, for William Henry Harrison (1773–1841) during his tenure from 1801 to 1812 as the first governor of the Indiana Territory. The residence was completed in 1804, and Harrison reportedly named it Grouseland due to the abundance of grouse in the area.

<i>Indianapolis News</i> Evening newspaper published in Indianapolis, United States

The Indianapolis News was an evening newspaper published for 130 years, beginning December 7, 1869, and ending on October 1, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corydon Historic District</span> Historic district in Indiana, United States

The Corydon Historic District is a national historic district located in Corydon, Indiana, United States. The town of Corydon is also known as Indiana's First State Capital and as Historic Corydon. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, but the listing was amended in 1988 to expand the district's geographical boundaries and include additional sites. The district includes numerous historical structures, most notably the Old Capitol, the Old Treasury Building, Governor Hendricks' Headquarters, the Constitution Elm Memorial, the Posey House, the Kintner-McGrain House, and The Kintner House Inn, as well as other residential and commercial sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belmont, Indiana</span> Unincorporated community in Indiana, United States

Belmont is an unincorporated community in Washington Township, Brown County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Coffin House</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

The Coffin House is a National Historic Landmark located in the present-day town of Fountain City in Wayne County, Indiana. The two-story, eight room, brick home was constructed circa 1838–39 in the Federal style. The Coffin home became known as the "Grand Central Station" of the Underground Railroad because of its location where three of the escape routes to the North converged and the number of fleeing slaves who passed through it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange Township, Noble County, Indiana</span> Township in Indiana, United States

Orange Township is one of thirteen townships in Noble County, Indiana. As of the 2020 census, its population was 3,934 and it contained 1,994 housing units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Age of Indiana Literature</span>

The Golden Age of Indiana Literature is a period from 1880 to 1920 when many nationally and internationally acclaimed literary works were created by natives of the state of Indiana. During this time, many of the United States' most popular authors came from Indiana. Maurice Thompson, George Ade, Booth Tarkington, Theodore Dreiser, Edward Eggleston, Frank McKinney Hubbard, George Barr McCutcheon, Meredith Nicholson, Gene Stratton Porter, Lew Wallace, and James Whitcomb Riley were foremost among the Hoosier authors.

<i>Laddie</i> (1940 film) 1940 American film

RKO Radio Pictures's Laddie is a 1940 American drama film starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore and Joan Carroll and directed by Jack Hively. It is the third film adaptation based on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel, Laddie, A True Blue Story (1913), and previously had been filmed in 1926 and by RKO in 1935.

Eliza Cooper Blaker was an American educator who headed the free kindergarten movement in Indianapolis from 1882 to 1926 as the first superintendent of schools for the Indianapolis Free Kindergarten and Children's Aid Society. She also established the Indianapolis Kindergarten and Primary Normal Training School at her Indianapolis home in 1882. Renamed the Teachers College of Indianapolis in 1905, she served as its president until her death in 1926. Four years later it became part of the education department at Butler University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Stratton Porter Cabin (Geneva, Indiana)</span> Historic building

Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, , known as the Limberlost Cabin and the Limberlost State Historic Site, was the former home of Gene Stratton Porter, a noted Indiana author who lived in the home from 1895 to 1913. The two-story, fourteen-room log cabin is located near the Limberlost Swamp on the outskirts of Geneva in Adams County, Indiana. Stratton-Porter designed the Queen Anne-style rustic home with the help of an architect. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. C. Steele State Historic Site</span> United States historic place

The T. C. Steele State Historic Site is located in rural Brown County, Indiana, one and a half miles south of Belmont, between Bloomington and Nashville, Indiana. The property was the studio and home of Hoosier Group landscape and portrait artist Theodore Clement Steele (1847–1926) and Selma Neubacher Steele (1870–1945), the artist's second wife. Shortly before her death in 1945, Selma donated the property on 211 acres of land to the Indiana Department of Conservation to establish a state historic site in memory of her husband. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as the Theodore Clement Steele House and Studio. The Indiana State Museum operates the historic site, which is open to the public and offers guided tours of the home and studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Propylaeum</span> Historic house in Indiana, United States

The Propylaeum, also known as the John W. Schmidt House or as the Schmidt-Schaf House, is a historic home and carriage house located at 1410 North Delaware Street in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. The Propylaeum was named after the Greek word "propýlaion," meaning "gateway to higher culture." The property became the headquarters for the Indianapolis Woman's Club in 1923, as well as the host for several other social and cultural organizations. It was initially built in 1890-1891 as a private residence for John William Schmidt, president of the Indianapolis Brewing Company, and his family. Joseph C. Schaf, president of the American Brewing Company of Indianapolis, and his family were subsequent owners of the home.

Ada Walter Shulz was an American painter, whose Impressionistic painting style primarily featured themes of mothers, children, and barnyard animals. Her paintings won awards at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1916 and 1917 and the annual Hoosier Salon exhibitions of 1926 and 1928. Her paintings were also selected for magazine covers for Woman's Home Companion and Literary Digest. The Terre Haute, Indiana, native studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Académie Vitti in Paris, France. In 1917 she moved from her longtime home in Delavan, Wisconsin, with her artist husband, Adolph Shulz, and son Walter, to the Brown County Art Colony in Nashville, Indiana. In 1926 she became a founding member of the Brown County Art Gallery Association in Nashville. She was also a member of the Chicago chapter of the Society of Western Artists. Her paintings are held in several collections, including those at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields), the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites, the Ball State University Museum of Art, the Dailey Family Memorial Collection of Hoosier Art at Indiana University, the Brown County Art Gallery and Museum, and the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, among others.

Blanche Stillson was an American artist and author from Indianapolis. She began her career as a painter, and later moved to wood-block printing.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.