Stand quietly in the flat at 2658 Delmar Boulevard and you can almost hear it: the syncopation that conquered America. The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site preserves the St. Louis home where the King of Ragtime lived from 1901 to 1903 — the years when his ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ fame was exploding and ‘The Entertainer’ was new.
Missouri State Parks interprets the modest rooms where Joplin taught, composed and held musical gatherings, and a player piano rolls out his rags the way St. Louis first heard them. The site anchors the story of the city’s Black musical heritage — the saloons, clubs and publishers of the Delmar and Chestnut Valley scene that made St. Louis a ragtime capital.
Small house, enormous echo.
The Scott Joplin House is at 2658 Delmar Boulevard. Hours at mostateparks.com.
