The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum is CLOSED until Spring 2025 for extensive renovation work on the Carriage House Interpretive Center. This building was saved from demolition by the City of Crawfordsville and dedicated volunteers over 20 years ago. It was restored in 2005 as the Museum welcome center, exhibit display space, office space, and gift shop. In the years since, the building has hosted over 100,000 visitors and is now in need of some structural renovations. Thanks to a grant from the Montgomery County Community Foundation, numerous private donors, and income from the Taste of Montgomery County and the Holdiay Tea we have raised sufficient funds to complete the work and upgrade the paint and floor finishes. We hope to complete the project by the end of March, but until it is completed the museum grounds will be closed to the public.   

Visit our online bookings page to reserve your tour time slot. Please be aware that weather may affect the hours the museum is open. We try to list all weather-related closings quickly on our website and social media.

Lew Wallace

General Lew Wallace’s accomplishments stretch much further than his 77 years. A Major General in the Union Army who led his troops in the decisive Civil War battles of Donelson, Shiloh, and Monocacy; a military judge in the trials of the Lincoln Conspirators and Commander Wirz of Andersonville Prison; ambassador to the Ottoman Empire; a brilliant author, orator, artist, inventor, and musician, General Wallace etched his place indelibly in the annals of American history.

But it was his masterwork, the epic religious novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), that gained General Wallace his highest accolades and cemented his reputation in literary history. Ben-Hur became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century. The novel the basis of several dramatizations, including the 1959 Academy Award®-winning motion picture starring Charlton Heston.

Today, the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum has faithfully preserved General Wallace’s personal memorabilia in the Study that he designed and built in 1895–on the same site where Ben-Hur was penned. Each year, the Museum presents educational and entertaining programs for all ages that demonstrate the qualities of leadership, ingenuity, exploration and character that General Wallace embodied throughout his life.

The General Lew Wallace Study & Museum is deeply committed to the protection and preservation of Lew Wallace’s legacy now and for generations to come.

Physical Address

200 Wallace Ave
Crawfordsville IN 47933

GPS Address: 271 Elston Avenue

Mailing Address

PO Box 662
Crawfordsville IN 47933