Dedication, grand opening of J.W. "Blind" Boone Home scheduled Sept. 18

On Sunday, Sept. 18 the John William "Blind" Boone Heritage Foundation will host the dedication and grand opening of the newly restored J.W. "Blind" Boone Home. The event will be held at the home, 10 N. Fourth St., from 2 to 4 p.m. with light refreshments provided after the program.

John William "Blind" Boone, born in 1864, overcame blindness, poverty, and discrimination to become a nationally famous concert pianist and composer. Boone helped to merge African-American folk music with the European classical tradition, a fusion that opened the way for ragtime, jazz, boogie-woogie and much more.

"Even before the Great Scott Joplin, Boone was busy evolving the first true ‘made in America' genre of music: Ragtime! It became America's gift to the world," said Lucille Salerno, emeritus board member of the Foundation and organizer of the former Blind Boone Jazz Festival.

The home was built between 1888-1892 by John Lange Jr. as a wedding present for his sister Eugenia Lange and Boone. It serves as a monument to the individual genius and generosity of Boone but it also represents the historic African-American community as a whole -- its struggles and accomplishments. The home's location on Fourth Street is one of the few physical remnants of the community African-Americans built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"The effort to preserve Boone's home is important, in part, because it is one of the few surviving reminders of the days when Fourth Street was the heart of Columbia's African-American neighborhood," said Greg Olson, a member of the Foundation. "At a time when the city, like much of the nation, was deeply segregated, Blind Boone was that rare individual who seemed to have the ability to bring together Columbia citizens of all races."

The home was purchased by the City of Columbia in 2000 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Renovations to the home included interior restoration, minor exterior repairs and landscaping. The project was approved by City Council on June 3, 2013 and the City portion was paid for with surplus funds from fiscal year 2012. The estimated cost for the City was $326,855 with a $16,500 donation from the John William "Blind" Boone Heritage Foundation.
The Foundation was organized in 1997; for more information, visit this link: http://blindboonehome.com/.