Indiana Humanities Council :: Meredith Nicholson House

meredith nicholson house

The Indiana Humanities Council is located in the house of the late Meredith Nicholson, an Indiana author most famous for his novel The House of a Thousand Candles, which he penned at 1500 North Delaware Street.

The Meredith Nicholson House, built in 1903-1904, is believed to be the first Georgian/Colonial Revival style home in Indianapolis. The Indiana Humanities Council acquired the house in 1986, after extensive refurbishing by Bob Beckmann, Jr., who purchased the house from the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indianapolis in 1979. Since Nicholson sold the house in 1923, a variety of families and businesses have called it home, including: the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music, a doctor’s office, a restaurant (Meredith Manor Dining Room) and an apartment building.

Today, it serves as the headquarters for the Council and several other nonprofit organizations. In addition, the house is an active humanities hub, welcoming other nonprofits in for meetings and discussions, hosting lectures and conversations, and opening its doors on the First Friday of every month for humanities-inspired programming.

During the last half of the 19th century, the Old Northside was the home of some of Indianapolis' most prominent citizens. As current resident of the Meredith Nicholson House, the Indiana Humanities Council is part of an active neighborhood whose residents have a profound interest in protecting the quality and aesthetic character of this historic district.

The historic home is beautiful inside and out. The symmetrical facade boasts brick laid in Flemish bond, quoins, multi-paned windows and pedimented roof dormers. An elliptical fanlight greets visitors as they enter the house. Three distinctive native Indiana hardwoods grace the floors of the house. Moldings, doors, interior pillars, multiple fireplaces and original mantelpieces grant a unique character and a special feeling to the structure.

Meredith "Nick" Nicholson would likely enjoy the state of the house now. He was a great believer in community service, a man of letters, who was happiest when he was in his native state of Indiana. Nicholson often said that the key to success is to stick close to home. In one of his better-known works, The Hoosiers, Nicholson commented on the social and cultural history of Indiana. In 1941, the Indianapolis Times reported that he loved to reminisce, allowing listeners the opportunity to live through his era.

Nicholson was born in 1866 in Crawfordsville, and moved to Indianapolis at age five. Except for three years in Denver and ten years in diplomatic service, he spent most of his life in Indianapolis, where he died December 20, 1947, at age 81. A high school dropout, Nicholson was largely self-educated, fluent in Latin, Greek, French and Italian. He worked at odd jobs-- as a drug store clerk, a gofer in a print shop, and as a law clerk, which led him to study law briefly. Abandoning a law career, he worked as a reporter at the Indianapolis News for 12 years. During his literary career, he wrote approximately 30 books, plays and essays before retiring from writing in 1929 to pursue a career in diplomatic service. A staunch Democrat, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. A year later he was transferred to Venezuela and, in 1938, to Nicaragua. Nicholson returned to Indianapolis in 1941 and lived in retirement at the Indianapolis Athletic Club until his death.