Word spread quickly through the music community in St. Louis and then by social media across the nation that the Scott Joplin House at 2658 Delmar Boulevard in the city had been badly vandalized. Allegedly a man with mental health problems broke into the historic site on Sunday, October 2. Apparently, the break-in was discovered by a neighbor walking by who noticed glass and debris on the sidewalk and called police.
Tragically, the intruder destroyed furnishings, displays, and instruments before escaping the large police contingent dispatched to end the destruction. The suspect was soon apprehended nearby and is in custody pending a judicial determination of his condition.
Employees and volunteers are now in the process of determining the extent of he damage which is considerable and estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars. Because many ceramic items and windows were broken, the suspect was injured, and blood covered some of the damaged property. This will add to the difficulty of restoration. It is in a way fortunate that nothing in the historic site was original to Joplin or the property.
Richard Egan, musician, historian, and longtime supporter of the historic site’s Friends of Scott Joplin Association said that a neighborhood group first recognized the value of the property and purchased it for restoration in the 1980s. It was later owned by the Missouri Department of N
