Scott Joplin, the King of Ragtime, lived from 1900 to 1903 in this house at 2658 Delmar Boulevard. Scott Joplin arrived in St. Louis in the early 1880s as a young man from Texarkana, Texas — the son of a formerly enslaved man and a free Black woman, both of whom recognized and nurtured his extraordinary musical talent. Joplin played in the saloons and brothels of Sedalia, Missouri, before publishing 'Maple Leaf Rag' in 1899 — the first piece of sheet music by an African American composer to sell over a million copies.
He moved to St. Louis and composed prolifically in this house: 'The Entertainer,' 'Elite Syncopations,' and dozens of other rags that defined a musical form. Ragtime — syncopated piano music with its characteristic rhythmic bounce — was the first distinctly American popular music form, and it was created entirely by African American composers. It laid the foundation for jazz, which in turn shaped blues, rock and roll, and virtually every form of popular music that followed.
Joplin spent his later years in New York, composing a ragtime opera, 'Treemonisha,' that was not properly appreciated in his lifetime. He died in 1917, largely forgotten. He received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
The house is open for tours. The music is timeless.