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Ivy Green

Coordinates: 34°44′22″N 87°42′24″W / 34.73944°N 87.70667°W / 34.73944; -87.70667
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Ivy Green (Helen Keller Birthplace*)
Ivy Green in 2009
Ivy Green is located in Alabama
Ivy Green
Ivy Green is located in the United States
Ivy Green
Location300 West North Commons, Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States
Coordinates34°44′22″N 87°42′24″W / 34.73944°N 87.70667°W / 34.73944; -87.70667
Area10 acres (4.0 ha)
Built1820 (1820)
ArchitectDavid Keller; Mary Fairfax Moore
NRHP reference No.70000101
Significant dates
Added to NRHPAugust 25, 1970[1]
Designated NHLMarch 31, 1992[2]

Ivy Green is a historic house museum at 300 West North Commons in Tuscumbia, Alabama, United States. Built in 1820, it was the birthplace and childhood home of Helen Keller (1880–1968), who became well known after overcoming deaf-blind conditions to communicate; she became an author and public speaker. Designated as a National Historic Landmark, it is now operated as a museum honoring and interpreting Keller's life.

Description and history

Ivy Green is located in a residential area north of downtown Tuscumbia, on the north side of West North Commons at Keller Lane. The property's principal features are the main house, the birthplace cottage, and the well. The main house is a 1+1⁄2-story frame structure with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. It has a five-bay facade, with sash windows around a roughly centered entrance. The entrance is sheltered by a gabled portico, and is framed by sidelight and transom windows. Nearby stands the birthplace cottage, a modest structure originally built as a plantation office. It was refurbished as a bridal suite for Arthur Henley Keller's second wife, who bore him Helen Keller in 1880. In between the two buildings stand the well and pump that played a key role in Helen Keller's development.[3]

The main house at Ivy Green was built in 1820 by David Keller, Helen Keller's grandfather.[4] The well pump is where Helen Keller first achieved a communicated breakthrough with her teacher and companion, Anne Sullivan.[3]

In 1954 the property was adapted as a museum dedicated to Helen Keller. A fire in 1972 caused minor damage and resulted in the donation of additional materials by the Keller family.[3]

Entrance to Ivy Green
Helen Keller, age 7

The Miracle Worker

Every summer, for over 30 years, the Helen Keller Foundation has presented outdoor performances here of William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, a play about Keller and Sullivan. The play is usually performed from early June through mid-July. It is especially popular during the Helen Keller Festival held in Tuscumbia every June.

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. ^ "Ivy Green (Helen Keller Birthplace)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 1, 2009. Retrieved October 28, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c Page Putnam Miller (June 7, 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Ivy Green / Keller, Helen, Birthplace" (pdf). National Park Service. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) and Accompanying 4 photos (2 exterior, 1 of water pump, and 1 of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan) from 1990 and undated. (515 KB)
  4. ^ "The Life of Helen Keller, National Institute of Blind People". Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved June 8, 2007.
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