The House - Short Story
Rabindranath Tagore traveled to the west many times before and after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. He visited Urbana twice: in 1912-13, and in 1916.
Rabindranath Tagore sent his son Rathindranath, his son-in-law Nagendra Nath Gangopadhyay and his student Santosh Majumdar to study Agricultural Economics at UIUC. They received their degrees in 1909. Tagore’s son Rathindranath and daughter-in-law Pratima Debi also stayed in the same house, in 1912-1913.
Tagore’s visit(s) and stay in Urbana are well-documented. For a summary, see this article by Rini Bhattacharya Mehta (Tagore in Urbana Illinois).
The poet stayed in Urbana at 508 West High Street and called it to be his home and cited it as his permanent address in several of his letters to friends and family.
508 West High Street is the only residence that Tagore ever rented with his family, outside of India.
We acquired the house from a private resident in August 2021.
It is a small single-family two-story house, built around 1900, on the campus of UIUC, with a plan to build a foundation aligning with our vision and mission.
