North Dakota has a plethora of historical sites. From monuments to battlefields, we certainly do have a lot of history that is still around today. One of these historical sites is in a small town in the south central region of ND, and while it's a little different from the rest it would probably be able to resonate with the nostalgia of thousands of people across the entire country. Even though so many people know of the man and show this historical site is based around, they probably don't know it's located right here:
Starsburg, ND: The original hometown of one of the most well known names in musical TV history.
Strasburg has always been a fairly small town, and today its population is only just above 400 residents. Back in its earliest days at the beginning of the 1900s, the entire community consisted of newly immigrated German and Ukrainian families that still spoke mostly German. One of those families was the Welk family.
This homestead is officially known as the Ludwig and Christina Welk Homestead and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Ludwig and Christina Welk were the parents of Lawrence Welk, the man who became known to pretty much everyone across America during the 1950s all the way up to 1982. He created and hosted a TV show known to everyone as The Lawrence Welk Show, and even though the show was mostly centered around music, many people watched it just to see the man himself.
His TV show mostly consisted of what became known as "Champagne Music," generally jazz or older styles, but were still gaining audiences in the 60s and 70s. Many people remember seeing this on TV during its Saturday night time slot every week on ABC. Even though the show ended in 1982, it still airs repackaged episodes on many PBS stations across the country.
The homestead is a quaint, beautiful place right on a lakeshore.
Even though it is pretty small in today's comparison, you can see exactly where Lawrence Welk grew up and originally worked the farm during his childhood and adolescence. When he was a teenager, he bought a $400 mail-order accordion and left the farm to pursue a musical career, one that proved to be wildly successful. He even has two Hollywood stars in his name, one for music and one for television.
You can visit and tour this lovely place for yourself.
The homestead is open for tours by local volunteers who run it. Not only can you walk the grounds of the farm, you can enter the buildings that have been kept exactly as they would have been when the famous TV host had lived there with his family.
There is certainly no other spot that can claim the same as this one.
For all the lives Lawrence Welk influenced during his time, only this town in North Dakota can claim itself as his birthplace.
For more information on this historic site, click here.
The site is located at 845 88th Street SE, Strasburg, ND, 58573.
There are plenty of other amazing historical sites in North Dakota. You can view more here!
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