Wednesday, March 21, 2012

MissouriLife.com: 'Scott Joplin House State Historic Site' is the 'only surviving structure associated with Scott Joplin'


[Scott Joplin House State Historic Site; Scott Joplin Black Heritage USA Postage Stamp]


Missouri Life

The Scott Joplin House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places during the 1976 Bicentennial year. The State of Missouri acquired the property in 1984, and the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site opened to the public in 1991. It is the only surviving structure associated with Scott Joplin himself, as well as the only Missouri State Historic Site dedicated to African-American history. It is a lonely but eloquent sentinel to Scott Joplin and St. Louis’s ragtime era, reflecting the limited locations available to African Americans for much of the city’s history.

Because few authentic Joplin artifacts remain, the second floor flat where Scott Joplin and his first wife, Belle, lived for about two years at the turn of the twentieth century is decorated with simple period furnishings and lit only by the characteristic gaslights of that time period. A visitors’ center and museum on the first floor of the building focus on Joplin’s life as well as turn-of-the-century St. Louis; a playable parlor player piano presents popular piano rolls from that period, including some cut by Scott Joplin himself.” 

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