Ben-Hur Was Written Here

Just ahead is the studio where one of the best-selling novels of the nineteenth century was born. Lew Wallace was a Union general, lawyer, diplomat, and eventually the governor of New Mexico Territory. But what made him famous was a novel he wrote here in Crawfordsville, completed in eighteen eighty: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

The book outsold every American novel for decades and was eventually adapted into two Hollywood films, including the classic that won eleven Academy Awards in nineteen fifty-nine. Wallace designed his studio himself, combining Romanesque, Byzantine, and Greek influences, and had it built between eighteen ninety-five and eighteen ninety-eight for about thirty thousand dollars. It sits fifty yards from his home and is now a National Historic Landmark.

Over the front entrance, carved in stone, is the face of Judah Ben-Hur himself.