|
Sections
>>
About The
Historic Site
>>
About The Friends
>>
Site Events
>>
Membership &
Donations
>>
Virtual Tour
>>
Gift Shop
>>
Volunteer
Opportunities
>>
Links
>>
Email
>>
Contact Us
>>
Home
>>
Newsletter
>>
What's New
>>
July Camp Steele
>>
Artist in Residence
T.C. Steele
State Historic Site
4220 T.C. Steele Rd.
Nashville, Indiana 47448
812-988-2785
Fax #
812-988-8457
Tours
Guided tours of historic site buildings
are available from early spring
through late fall.
Hours:Tuesday-Saturday,
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Sunday, 1-5 p.m.
We are closed on Mondays
Now Open Year Round
Building tour program fee
Standard admission:
$3.50 for adults,
$3 for seniors 65 and older,
$2 for children
12 and under.
Group tour: $3 for adults
$1.50 for children
School groups on field trips: $1/person
Special discounts:
--Friends of T.C. Steele members free of charge, and 10% museum shop discount
--National Trust for Historic Preservation
members $3 for adults, $1.50 for children, and 10% museum shop discount
Outdoor activities--trails, gardens, nature preserve--free of charge
Friends of T.C.Steele
Copyright 2002-2008
|
|
|
Welcome to
The Friends of T.C. Steele
State Historic Site
The T.C.
Steele State Historic Site includes the last home and studio of Indiana artist
Theodore Clement Steele (1847-1926) and his second wife Selma Neubacher Steele
(1870-1945). Steele, a member of the noted "Hoosier Group" of American
Impressionist painters, was attracted to Brown County by the scenery he
encountered while hiking in the area. The site's 211 acres of wooded hills
and ravines inspired the artist to paint some of his most famous works. As
Indiana's premier portraitist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Steele
also painted many of Indiana's "rich and famous." These industrialists,
philanthropists, educators, and political figures are the people whose stories
fill our history books.
Steele purchased the land that now
comprises the T.C. Steele State Historic Site in early 1907. That
spring, he built a home and brought a wife to what became known as the
"House of the Singing Winds." Artists from around the country came
to visit and to paint with Steele, finding for themselves the area's
spectacular beauty. Many stayed and settled to form the famous Brown
County Art Colony. The House of the Singing Winds was doubled in
size in 1908, and eventually two studio buildings were constructed along
with a garage, guest cottages, and other outbuildings. At least two
remote painting shacks were built to accommodate Steele's practice of
painting outdoors.
Historic Photo ca. 1920; T.C. Steele SHS
The Steeles undertook an
ambitious landscaping plan which transformed their hilltop acreage into
elaborate gardens and orchards. They planted hundreds of trees and
blazed hiking trails through the nearby woods.
T.C. Steele died at the
House of the Singing Winds in 1926, and his widow kept the property open to the
public until her death in 1945. Shortly before her death, Selma Steele
donated the property, buildings, and many artifacts, including over 350 T.C.
Steele paintings, to the state of Indiana. Her wishes were that the site
would become a place of education as well as a source of enjoyment for future
generations.
The site has been administered by the Indiana
Department of Conservation, now the Department of Natural Resources, since
1945. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973,
and received accreditation from the American Association of Museums in
1988. The 92-acre Selma N. Steele State Nature Preserve, which boasts
several rare and endangered plant species, was dedicated in 1990.
| |
