Paul Dresser Birthplace | |
![]() Front of the building | |
Location | 1st and Farrington Sts., Terre Haute, Indiana |
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Coordinates | 39°27′24″N87°25′2″W / 39.45667°N 87.41722°W Coordinates: 39°27′24″N87°25′2″W / 39.45667°N 87.41722°W |
Area | less than one acre |
NRHP reference No. | 73000024 [1] |
Added to NRHP | January 22, 1973 |
The Paul Dresser Birthplace is located in Fairbanks Park in Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana, at the corner of First and Farrington Streets. [2] Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is the birthplace and boyhood home of Paul Dresser, a late-nineteenth-century singer, actor, and songwriter, who wrote and published more than 100 popular songs. [2] [3] On March 14, 1913, the Indiana General Assembly named Dresser's hit, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away", the state song of Indiana. [4]
Built in 1850, the home was owned by Dresser's parents, Johann Paul and Sarah (Schanab) Dreiser. Their son, Johann Paul Dreiser Jr., who later changed his name to Paul Dresser, was born in the house on April 22, 1858. [5] Dresser's father built the porch for the brick house, which originally consisted of one bedroom, a lean-to kitchen, and a parlor.[ citation needed ] In 1863 Dresser's father sold the home and moved the family to Sullivan, Indiana. By 1871 they had returned to Terre Haute, but Dresser did not stay in town for long. [6] [7] Dresser left home at the age of sixteen and became "one of the most important composers of the 1890s". [3] Dresser toured the country as a vaudeville entertainer, then moved to New York City, where he was also involved in music publishing. [3] Dresser returned to Terre Haute only for brief visits and public performances. [8] [9] [10]
Originally, the house was located at 318 South Second Street in Terre Haute. During the 1960s, when urban renewal threatened its demolition, the Vigo County Historical Society raised funds purchase the building (through a process of eminent domain), saving it from destruction, and relocated it to the southeast corner of Fairbanks Park. [11] Altered over the years, the building consists of two floors. The first floor has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a parlor. The second floor has two bedrooms that are accessible by an outside staircase.[ citation needed ] The Vigo County Historical Society operates the home as a museum, open by appointment. [11] [12] Artifacts pertaining to Dresser include a Chickering piano that he used to write songs and a portrait of Dresser painted during the height of his career.[ citation needed ] Unlike other house museums, Dresser's birthplace reflects the furnishings of a working-class family, not the well-to-do. [9] [13]
In 1967 the Indiana General Assembly designated the home as a state shrine and memorial. [3] That same year the National Music Council listed it as "A Landmark of American Music". [3] [9] The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. [2] Terre Haute's Fairbanks Park also includes a local Girl Scout office and a Terre Haute parks department office.[ citation needed ] In 1923 the Banks-of-the-Wabash Association officially named Paul Dresser Drive, the park's main road, in the songwriter's honor. [3] [9]
Vigo County is a county on the western border of the U.S. state of Indiana. According to the 2020 United States Census, it had a population of 105,994. Its county seat is Terre Haute.
Terre Haute is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, only 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943.
West Terre Haute is a town in Sugar Creek Township, Vigo County, Indiana, on the western side of the Wabash River near Terre Haute. The population was 2,236 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bethany Congregational Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Max Ehrmann was an American writer, poet, and attorney from Terre Haute, Indiana, widely known for his 1927 prose poem "Desiderata". He often wrote on spiritual themes.
Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctoral/Professional Universities".
The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was the longest canal ever built in North America.
Paul Dresser was an American singer, songwriter, and comedic actor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dresser performed in traveling minstrel and medicine-wagon shows and as a vaudeville entertainer for decades, before transitioning into a music publishing in the later years of his life. His biggest hit, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1897), was the best selling song of its time. Although Dresser had no formal training in music composition, he wrote ballads that had wide appeal, including some of the most popular songs of the era. During a career that spanned nearly two decades, from 1886 to 1906, Dresser composed and published more than 150 songs. Following the success of "Wabash", many newspapers compared Dresser to popular composer Stephen Foster. "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" became the official song of Indiana in 1913. The Paul Dresser Birthplace in Terre Haute is designated as a state shrine and memorial. Dresser was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
"On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" was among the best-selling songs of the 19th century, earning over $100,000 from sheet-music revenues. Written and composed by American songwriter Paul Dresser, it was published by the Tin Pan Alley firm of Howley, Haviland and Company in October 1897. The lyrics of the ballad reminisce about life near Dresser's childhood home by the Wabash River in Indiana, United States. The song remained popular for decades, and the Indiana General Assembly adopted it as the official state song on March 14, 1913. The song was the basis for a 1923 film of the same title. Its longtime popularity led to the emergence of several lyrical versions, including an 1898 anti-war song and a Swedish version that was a number-one hit.
The Terre Haute House was a historic hotel in downtown Terre Haute, Indiana, United States, that was demolished despite numerous efforts to preserve it. The hotel was replaced by a Hilton Garden Inn, which opened in 2007.
Francis Vigo born Giuseppe Maria Francesco Vigo was an Italian-American who aided the American colonial forces during the Revolutionary War and helped found a public university in Vincennes, Indiana.
The Terminal Arcade, located on Wabash Avenue in downtown Terre Haute, Indiana, is a Beaux-Arts building on the National Register of Historic Places since June 30, 1983.
U.S. Route 150 (US 150) in Indiana is a 176.315-mile-long (283.751 km) east–west highway that travels from the Illinois state line east of Paris, Illinois to Louisville, Kentucky at the Kentucky state line. A section of US 150 from New Goshen to Vincennes travels north–south instead of east–west. US 150 travels concurrently with its parent route, US 50, from Vincennes to Shoals. Between West Terre Haute and Terre Haute, US 150 travels along part of the historic National Road. Also, from Vincennes to New Albany, the route is designated as part of Indiana's Historic Pathways, as it roughly parallels what was then part of the Buffalo Trace.
The Vigo County Courthouse is a courthouse in Terre Haute, Indiana. The seat of government for Vigo County, the courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
D. Omer "Salty" Seamon (1911–1997) was an American painter known for his folksy watercolors and landscapes of Indiana and the Midwest. His work can be found in galleries and homes across the United States.
Taylorville, also known as Taylorsville or Dresser, is an unincorporated community in eastern Sugar Creek Township, Vigo County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It is part of the Terre Haute metropolitan area. Though the United States Board on Geographic Names has officially designated the area as Taylorville, the 2010 United States Census considered the area a census designated place called Dresser.
Wabash Avenue–West Historic District is a national historic district located at Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. It encompasses 24 contributing buildings in the central business district of Terre Haute. It developed after 1870 and includes representative examples of Italianate, Romanesque Revival, and Renaissance Revival style architecture. Notable buildings include 408 Wabash Avenue, 425-431 Wabash Avenue (1867-1868), the White Block (1899), The Albrecht Building (1893), 522 Wabash Avenue (1890), 524 Wabash Avenue, Koopman Building (1875), Blumberg Building (1915), and the Hotel Deming (1914).
Sage-Robinson-Nagel House, also known as the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, is a historic home located at Terre Haute, Vigo County, Indiana. It was built in 1868, and is a two-story, "L"-shaped, Italianate style brick dwelling. It has a low-pitched hipped roof with heavy double brackets, decorative front porch, and a projecting bay window.
A mob of white Vigo County, Indiana residents lynched George Ward, a black man, on February 26, 1901 in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the suspected murder of a white woman. An example of a spectacle lynching, the event was public in nature and drew a crowd of over 1,000 white participants. Ward was dragged from a jail cell in broad daylight, struck in the back of the head with a sledgehammer, hanged from a bridge, and burned. His toes and the hobnails from his boots were collected as souvenirs. A grand jury was convened but no one was ever charged with the murder of Ward. It is the only known lynching in Vigo County. The lynching was memorialized 120 years later with a historical marker and ceremony.