Gene Stratton Porter Cabin | |
Location | 200 E. 6th St., Geneva, Indiana |
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Coordinates | 40°35′13″N84°57′36″W / 40.58694°N 84.96000°W |
Area | 1.2 acres (0.49 ha) |
Built | 1895 |
NRHP reference No. | 74000027 [1] |
Added to NRHP | June 27, 1974 |
Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, (Geneva, Indiana), 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.
Stratton-Porter, who began her literary career in 1900, used the cabin as the base for her field research, natural history collecting, writing projects, and photographic work. She wrote The Song of the Cardinal (1903) and researched Moths of the Limberlost (1912) while living at the cabin. Stratton-Porter also used the Limberlost area as the setting for three novels: Freckles (1904) and A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) and Laddie (1913).
Gene Stratton-Porter, her husband, Charles Dorwin Porter, and their daughter Jeannette, moved from Decatur to Geneva, Indiana, after Jeanette's birth in 1887. [2] [3] Construction began on their new, two-story home at 200 East Sixth Avenue in Geneva in 1894. [4] [5] Stratton-Porter designed the home, which was described as "the most pretentious dwelling in the Geneva area," with the help of an architect. [6] The cabin was completed in 1895, the same year that she began to write and publish her first magazine articles. The Porters named their new home Limberlost Cabin in reference to its location near the Limberlost Swamp, in Adams and Jay Counties, where Stratton-Porter found the inspiration for her writing. [7] [8] [9] Stratton-Porter lived in the cabin at Geneva with her husband and daughter for eighteen years and referred to their large, fourteen-room home as "the cabin." [8] [10]
Between 1888 and 1910, the area's wetlands at the Limberlost Swamp were drained to reclaim the land for commercial and agricultural development. By 1912 the work to drain the wetlands for cultivation was complete and the natural habitat of the wildlife that Stratton-Porter documented in her books was destroyed. As a result of the development, Stratton-Porter decided to relocate. [2] [10] In 1914 Stratton-Porter and her family moved from the Limberlost Cabin to a new cabin that she called Wildflower Woods at Sylvan Lake near Rome City in Noble County, Indiana, about 80 miles (130 km) from Geneva. [11] [12] Charles Porter continued to live at Limberlost Cabin and commuted to Sylvan Lake on the weekends. The Porters sold the property in Geneva in 1923. [13]
The Limberlost Conservation Association of Geneva donated the Limberlost Cabin to the State of Indiana in 1947. The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites operates the state historic site as a historic house museum. Some of Stratton-Porter's possessions are on display in the cabin, including her collection of mounted moths, household furnishings, and other memorabilia. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. [14] [15] The site is open to the public and includes the Limberlost Cabin, a carriage house, and a visitor center. Guided tours of the cabin are available. [16]
Working with an architect, Stratton-Porter designed a two-story, fourteen-room home for her family in the late 1890s. The home was inspired by the Forestry Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which the Porters visited in 1893. [17]
The two-story, Queen Anne-style home has a Wisconsin white cedar-log exterior and features California redwood shingles on the upper story. The front facade features a single-story wraparound porch with log pillars across the front and east side. The fourteen-room home includes a wood-framed interior with red oak panels in the entrance hall, dining room, and library. The first floor also contains a kitchen, two bedrooms, a music room, a small conservatory, and a full bathroom (which Stratton-Porter also used as a photographic darkroom). The second floor included four large rooms. The home also featured seven fireplaces, large windows, and white oak floors. [12] [18] [19] A cedar-log barn/carriage house was erected behind the home. The property also included a yard filled with fruit trees, vines, and bushes, as well as a large flower garden. [20]
The Limberlost Cabin, in addition to serving as the Porters' residence, was Stratton-Porter's base for her field research, natural history collecting, writing projects, and photographic work. [21] While residing in Geneva, Stratton-Porter spent much of her time exploring, observing nature, sketching, and making photographs at the Limberlost Swamp. The cabin is also where she began writing her literary career at the age of thirty-six. [2] Stratton-Porter used her fictional writings to educate readers about birding and nature while interlacing the stories with romance and moral lessons. Her popularity was so high during World War I that "reprints of the novel were said to have littered the trenches." [22]
Stratton-Porter's first published article appeared in Recreation magazine in 1900 when she was living at Limberlost Cabin. She also wrote her first novel, The Song of the Cardinal (1903), while living there. Stratton-Porter used the nearby swamp for research for her natural history book, Moths of the Limberlost (1912), as well. In addition, the area was the setting for three of her popular novels: Freckles (1904), A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) and Laddie (1913). While a resident of Geneva, Stratton-Porter became known as "The Bird Lady" and "The Lady of the Limberlost" to her friends and readers. [23] [24]
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.
Corydon is a town in Harrison Township, Harrison County, Indiana. Located north of the Ohio River in the extreme southern part of the US state of Indiana, it is the seat of government for Harrison County. Corydon was founded in 1808 and served as the capital of the Indiana Territory from 1813 to 1816. It was the site of Indiana's first constitutional convention, which was held June 10–29, 1816. Forty-three delegates convened to consider statehood for Indiana and drafted its first state constitution. Under Article XI, Section 11, of the Indiana 1816 constitution, Corydon was designated as the capital of the state, which it remained until 1825, when the seat of state government was moved to Indianapolis. In 1863, during the American Civil War, Corydon was the site of the Battle of Corydon, the only official pitched battle waged in Indiana during the war. More recently, the town's numerous historic sites have helped it become a tourist destination. A portion of its downtown area is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Corydon Historic District. As of the 2010 census, Corydon had a population of 3,122.
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.
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.
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.
Thomas Taggart was an Irish-American politician who was the political boss of the Democratic Party in Indiana for the first quarter of the twentieth century and remained an influential political figure in local, state, and national politics until his death. Taggart was elected auditor of Marion County, Indiana (1886–1894), and mayor of Indianapolis. His mayoral administration supported public improvements, most notably the formation of the city's park and boulevard system. He also served as a member of the Democratic National Committee (1900–1916) and as its chairman (1904–1908). Taggart was appointed to the U.S. Senate in March 1916, but lost the seat in the November election.
A Girl of the Limberlost, a novel by American writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter, was published in August 1909. It is considered a classic of Indiana literature. It is the sequel to her earlier novel Freckles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Laddie is a 1935 American comedy-drama film directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Ray Harris and Dorothy Yost, based on the 1913 novel, Laddie: A True Blue Story, by Gene Stratton-Porter. The film stars John Beal, Gloria Stuart, and Virginia Weidler.
Katherine "Flossie" Bailey was a civil rights and anti-lynching activist from Indiana. She established a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Marion, Indiana, in 1918 and became especially active fighting for justice and equality following the double lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930. As president of the Indiana NAACP, Bailey was pivotal in lobbying for passage of a statewide anti-lynching law in Indiana in 1931 and advocated for a similar bill at the national level. She was also a recipient of the national NAACP's Madam C. J. Walker Medal.
Jessie Marie Goth was an American painter from Indianapolis, Indiana. Best known for her portraiture, Goth was the first woman to paint an official portrait of an Indiana governor that was installed in the Indiana Statehouse. Goth became a full-time resident of Nashville, Indiana in the 1920s and was active in its Brown County Art Colony. She became a charter member and former president of the Brown County Art Gallery Association in 1926 and a cofounder of the Brown County Art Guild in 1954. Goth died from injuries sustained in a fall at her home in 1975.
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.
Laddie is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by James Leo Meehan with John Bowers in the title role. It was based on Gene Stratton-Porter's novel, Laddie, A True Blue Story (1913).