Robert Ingersoll Birthplace
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Robert Ingersoll Birthplace
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Robert Ingersoll Birthplace, May 2011
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| Location | Main St., Dresden, New York |
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| Coordinates | 42°41′03″N 76°57′22″W / 42.68417°N 76.95611°WCoordinates: 42°41′03″N 76°57′22″W / 42.68417°N 76.95611°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1833 |
| Architectural style | Federal |
| NRHP Reference # | 88000110 |
| Added to NRHP | February 11, 1988 |
Robert Ingersoll Birthplace, also known as Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, is a historic home located at Dresden in Yates County, New York. It is a Federal-style structure that consists of a two-story, three-bay, gable-roofed central block with a two-part, 1 1⁄2-story saltbox ell on the west side. The central block and the front portion of the ell were built separately and joined together sometime before they were moved to their present location prior to 1833. The rear portion of the ell was added on-site at the current location at an unknown date.
The house was the birthplace of noted agnostic and politician Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and added to New York State's Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The central block was built circa 1800 as a Congregational church parsonage. It was originally located on Charles Street in Dresden, a few hundred feet south and east of its current location. It was constructed of donated materials by volunteer labor. The front portion of the ell was built circa 1800 in Hopeton, a settlement two miles east of Dresden which failed early in the nineteenth century. Several buildings were moved downhill to Dresden, presumably by sledge during a snowy winter. The front portion of the ell and the central block were united on the current Main Street site sometime prior to 1833 and the rear portion of the ell added on-site.
Robert Green Ingersoll was born here while his father, the Rev. John Ingersoll, was employed as pastor of Dresden's Congregational Church. During that time his family resided in the parsonage. A staunch abolitionist well before this position became popular in the North, Rev. Ingersoll tended not to hold a ministerial appointment very long, and his tenure in Dresden was no exception. The Ingersolls left Dresden when baby Robert was but four months old. Given Robert's brief residence, one might question the appropriateness of placing an Ingersoll museum at the birthplace. This Dresden house is the only one of Robert Ingersoll's residences now standing. For this reason the Dresden building has been celebrated by freethinkers since shortly after his death. Upon Ingersoll's death in 1899, his brother-in-law and official publisher Charles P. Farrell launched the Dresden Publishing Company, named for the village of his birth, to publish a multi-volume set of Ingersoll's collected works. When published in 1900, the first volume bore an engraving of the birthplace. The birthplace has been restored and opened as an Ingersoll museum three times. In 1921 a large committee including Thomas Edison, Luther Burbank, Edgar Lee Masters, and members of the Ingersoll family opened the birthplace as a museum, community house, and public library. The facility closed during the Depression and fell into disrepair. In 1954, a committee led by atheist activist Joseph Lewis restored the building again and operated it as an Ingersoll museum for several years.
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