Talk:Terre Haute, Indiana

Grammar Issues

Wikipedia is a work in progress and anyone can edit. Please feel free to make any grammar corrections you feel are needed. —Charles Edward ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 16:29, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put. --Anonymous, 23:10, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Jakob Thornberry

Who is Jakob Thornberry? I have never heard of him and, even if he belongs on the list of distinguished residents or former residents, he would belong in a different category.

Distinguish resident of party patrol USA. One cool motherfucker

Location of Saint Mary's

I changed the wording regarding Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College to read that it is "northwest of" rather than "in" West Terre Haute. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is a separate village with its own post office and zip code.--MarshallStack 02:07, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Time Zone

Can someone confirm the time zone information? I don't live there anymore but I thought Terre Haute was in the area of Indiana that does not do DST.

And, who the hell is Kelly Bird? She/He is not the author of any book sold by amazon.com. Qwertius 04:28, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

All of Indiana is now on DST - Terre Haute is now permanently in the eastern time zone. --Jdcole1978 23:25, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

St. Mary's

St. Mary-of-the-Woods is an all-women's school, not mostly women. I've changed it, but if someone can prove otherwise, then feel free to correct me. --Jdcole1978 23:22, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

They have changed the Women's External Degree program to a Weekend External Degree program that admits men. On-campus undergrads. remain all female, but grad, students and off-campus tsudents need not be. I still think of it as a women's college. JJL 05:02, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

I changed it to "primarily women's college", as calling it a strictly women's college would not be accurate. Orpheus42 06:58, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

McVeigh edit and restoration

Last night I changed McVeigh's execution date from June 11, 2001 to September 10, 2001. I have a very clear and distinct memory of watching a candle-lit vigil outside the Terre Haute penitentiary on CNN. The moment was memorable to me both because of his responsibility for the Oklahoma bombings and because his execution was carried out in my "home town". When New York and Washington D.C. were attacked the next day, I was struck by the coincidence of the two events and this burned the memory in my mind even more firmly.

I logged on to add a note to the discussion page but thought I'd double-check the date first. Imagine my confused surprise when google presented several links that confirm the June 11th date. I'm very puzzled but I have restored my edit to the original. MPinkstaff 15:55, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

It was definitely not September 10. I was at the Bloomington Unitarian Church service the Sunday after McVeigh's execution and Rev. Bill Breeden, who organized the vigil outside on the night of the execution gave the sermon and it was one of the most moving things I have ever heard in my life so I remember it in great detail and he certainly never mentioned 9/11 which, knowing Bill, he definitely would.

Candles Museum Fund Drives

Can someone put in that the surrounding area also gave substantial contrubutions to the rebulding of the museum? I am from Sullivan County, and our Elementary School gave a significant contrubution.

Cleanup

I think the "Other facts" portion needs major changes.

I think that CANDLES and Terre Haute Action Track articles should be broken out/written. The track is well-known nationally to dirt track fans. The track was frequently featured on Thursday Night Thunder telecasts in ESPN in the 1990s.

I would delete all of the rest except Reader's Digest (which should be cited), Columbia House, Prison, and movie. The rest doesn't appear to be encyclopedic to me. Cheers! Royalbroil ^{Talk  Contrib} 04:47, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Demographics. . .

Demographics? There aren't any. Fix that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.21.195.68 (talk) 21:06, 20 November 2006

Yes sir, I'll get right on that, sir.

Actually it's weird that no one has caught this until now. It was deleted back in March[1][2] -- Tim D 03:21, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Notable Residents

While I don't really feel comfortable with making a new article, I'm sure somebody does. The entire list of notable residents should definitely be moved to a new page, "List of Notable People from Terre Haute, Indiana" or something like that. The vertical size of the article is a bit unwieldy.

And is the Mr. Wolfe referenced in the list a living or dead artist? I know that there is a painter by that name in West Terre Haute, but I'm not sure he does much sculpting. Archaeo 16:26, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Mr. Wolfe was/is a painter; however, he has earned a considerable reputation as a sculptor in the past decade, starting with the Abrell/Korean War monument on the Vigo County Courthouse lawn, the Max Carey monument near the entrance to Memorial Stadium, the V-12 monument on the campus of Indiana State University, the Carmel-Clay monument in Carmel, Ind., the Orville Wright statue at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio; and the World War II monument in Webster, Mass. I believe it is fair to say that Wolfe is now primarily devoted to sculpturing. Photos of two of Wolfe's sculptures are depicted in McCormick's book, Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash (2005).

Mayor

Who put the mayor as Kevin W. Burke? I will change it in a sec once I figure out how to reference it.

Baldeahle 20:12, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Pronunciation

The article presently indicates that Terre Haute is pronounced with primary stress on the first syllable of Terre. I have never heard it pronounced other than with primary stress on Haute. Is that just because everyone outside Terre Haute pronounces the name wrong, or is there an error here? Tomer^talk 02:27, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

To clarify, the article currently says the name is pronounced [ˈtɛ.ɹə hoʊt], I've only ever heard it pronounced [ˌtɛ·ɹə ˈhoʊt]. Cheers, Tomer^talk 02:29, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Ditto. I'm changing it to [ˌtɛ·ɹə ˈhoʊt]. Orpheus42 06:54, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Although I have always pronounced it with the accent on "Haute" (which your alteration accomplishes), I think a significant minority of residents would pronounce it with the accent on "Terre." McTavidge 22:21, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

That's possible... I've never heard it though. I'll ask my fiancee, since she lives there (and has since birth). I'm in Evansville. At any rate, I suppose it's not exactly a huge deal. Orpheus42 08:13, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

I live in Terre Haute, and I accent the Terre. Those that accent "Haute", also tend to pronounce it "Terruh Hote", when it should be "Tear (as in 'rip') Hote", with the Terre. But both are used, and perhaps both pronouciations should be listed. This is similar in my mind to the pronounciation issues with Vigo County. (some pronounce it VIE-go, rather than VEE-go) --RadicalX2k 17:22, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Meth capital of the world?

Seriously, most of the small- to medium-sized towns and cities in Indiana could lay claim to that title. What's it doing in this entry? It certainly doesn't seem to me to be NPOV language. Orpheus42 07:17, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

I live here, and I don't hear this comment (beyond just every day joking about meth arrests, which occur all over the Midwest). Granted, that is anecdotal, but so is this comment, and it needs to be deleted unless someone can materialize a source for it. Jdcole1978 19:44, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Picture

While it's been a few years since I lived in TH, I wonder why this image is "Down Town" Terre Haute. While the buildings shown are in or near down town, a photo showing Wabash or even Ohio ave would be more indicative of what Down Town TH looks like....

While not a very flattering picture of Downtown Terre Haute, this picture is framed on the left by Wabash Ave, and on the right by Ohio Blvd, the two streets you mentioned. Perhaps a better picture will be found soon. --RadicalX2k 17:15, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Airport

Since Hulman Field has no airline service, somebody should add what airport Terre Hautians (or whatever) fly out of typically. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.170.105.214 (talk) 23:15, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Urban Legends?

The section about urban legends of Terre Haute needs some work, the second legend in particular; it needs to be NPOV, and it needs sources. Maybe whoever the original "this writer" was, he or she could fix it up a bit? Or, if no one has any good reasons for fixing it, I'd delete the section entirely. Minimally, the urban legends could be mentioned as one-sentence blurbs under the "In the Media" section (which could easily be changed to "In popular culture"). Emika22 (talk) 17:52, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

"The Armpit of Indiana" as a nickname

A nickname is sometimes considered desirable, symbolising a form of acceptance, but can often be a form of ridicule.

What as stated above an excerpt from the nickname wikipedia article an nickname does always have to be desirable. Thusly one may logically come to the conclusion that it is not always chosen by the person whom it is used for.

Another note is that it is not just a "joke by a comedian" but is much of the time Terre Haute is referred to as "The Armpit of America" and this is not just a coincidence.

If this is not a nickname I am not sure what is because it seems to have "stuck" like most nicknames it was a comment that became well know and is used in reference to that person or place. If anyone can come up with a valid reason why this is not truly a nickname i would appreciate to see what others have to say, that it could be taken in a bad way is irrelevant to the word nickname as quoted above if there are problems with this issue then take that up with the people who wrote the article on nicknames. Thank you for your time and just comments are very welcome—Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.66.179 (talk • contribs) 13:38, April 28, 2010

• Your citation simply proves that Steve Martin made the comment in a joke. You have provided NO support for your statement that "much of the time Terra Haute is referred to as 'The Armpit of America'". In fact, I searched the term "Armpit of America" using Google and of the 197,000 hits, I couldn't even find Terre Haute discussed anywhere near the top of the search results. Unless you can do more than make unsubstantiated claims, the fact that a few people you personally know may refer to the city that way does not make it a nickname for encyclopedia purposes. -- DS1953 ^talk 18:23, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

• Terre Haute is notorious in and around the Midwest for its distinct bad odor which is the result of local industry (specifically a paper plant and a poorly located sewage treatment facility). http://blog801.wordpress.com/2006/05/21/is-terre-haute-the-place-to-go/ This is not just a "joke" but a Fact, put your sewage facility somewhere else and this nickname never would have come around. As this article states terre haute is known around the midwest for its bad odor showing that it is not just "me and a few people i personally know" who have claimed this.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.66.179 (talk • contribs)

• Just because Terre Haute has a bad odor like me does not mean that you are entitled to turn a comedian's joke into a nickname. This is an encyclopedia. It is supposed to contains verifiable facts. Please read the Wikipedia policy on verifiability. I have pointed out that there is no verifiable factual support for claiming that "The Armpit of America" is an established nickname. You simply added a citation to a blog post that only states that Steve Martin called it by that name. I assume that you can read and understand the policy. Right now, I believe that your actions are misguided but are in good faith. However, if you continue to insist on adding unverified, and I believe clearly erroneous, information in clear violation of Wikipedia policy, then I will have to consider the likelihood that your insistence is not in good faith. -- DS1953 ^talk 23:38, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

In the Media

The section badly needs cleanup. Most of the first half is grammatically insane (especially the A Christmas Story line), and there's a repeated bit near the bottom (Boy Gets Girl). --Anonymous, 23:16, 10 May 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.190.45.211 (talk)

Trivia section

In the media

Since it's been problematic for years and is mainly unsourced, I am removing the trivia section and placing it in its entirety here, per WP:TRIVIA. If anyone feels like sourcing these facts and placing them in relevant context within the article, not as just a list, feel free. Sweet kate (talk) 17:14, 4 March 2011 (UTC)

Frank Sinatra movie Some Came Running refers to Terre Haute several times. After Frank Sinatra (Dave Hirsh) and Shirley MacLaine's (Ginnie Moorehead) characters are engaged Ginnie asks "Dave, can we please go to Terre Haute for our honeymoon?"

The novel "Being and Nothingness: An Historical Mystery," by Luke Hauser, takes place in Terre Haute. The city is described as the "epicenter of Western Philosophy," and features a "Latin Quarter" and waterfront gambling casinos.

The Jack Kerouac novel "On the Road" mentions Terre Haute as one of the travel destinations of the protagonist, Sal Paradise.

One of Terre Haute's best known authors, Theodore Dreiser, mentioned Terre Haute in his groundbreaking novel, "Sister Carrie."

Terre Haute was the target of the dastardly plot by Nazi stooges in the 1982 spoof noir movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Terre Haute's "role" in the movie was the contribution of actor/comedian Steve Martin, the star and co-writer of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Steve Martin had visited Terre Haute and performed his stand-up routine in the city a few years prior to making the movie.

Terre Haute was the original home of Cissy, Jody, and Buffy Davis in the CBS sitcom Family Affair. The characters mispronounced the city's name "Terra Hut." However, the mispronunciation may have been intentional, continuing a long-running "in joke" amongst Terre Hauteans. Due to the town's red light district and less-than-savory areas, from at least the mid-19th century, the name was used in a play on the words "hot" and "hut," Terry Hot, Terry Hut, and Terrible Hut.

In the closing minutes of the Pilot episode of Mr. Belvedere, when the family decides they do not need his services, the youngest child Wesley asks what he will do now. Mr. Belvedere replies "I've always wanted to see Terre Haute, don't ask me why."

Terre Haute was mentioned in the Peter Yates film Breaking Away when the characters were deciding what to do and one asked if they "wanted to go to Terre Haute."

Terre Haute was mentioned in two episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip when the local "NBS" refused to show the skit "Crazy Christians". This was in direct reference to Terre Haute's local NBC affiliate, WTWO, refusing to show "The Book of Daniel".

Terre Haute is mentioned several times in the classic favorite Christmas movie A Christmas Story, 1983; two of them are when the line at the shopping mall to see Santa "stretched all the way to Terre Haute," and when 'The Old Man' Darren McGavin is awaiting 'The Major Award' and says, "it could be an entire bowling alley; last week, some guy in Terre Hut won an entire bowling alley!" A Christmas Story takes place in Hammond, Lake County, Indiana, where the author, Jean Shepherd, of the books on which the movie are based was from. Terre Haute is approximately 150 miles (240 km) due south of Hammond, and US 41 connects the two cities.

In Stephen King's post-apocalyptic horror novel The Stand, Donald Merwin Elbert (aka The Trashcan Man), after committing several arsons due to his pyromania, was sent to a mental institution in Terre Haute before being incarcerated in a separate institution for teenage delinquents. (Father Gibault School for Boys, just south of Terre Haute on US 41, was briefly the home of Charles Manson.) In King's The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, the main protagonists stumble into a parallel-universe version of the post-apocalypse world of The Stand in which all of Terre Haute was burned down.

In Stephen King's (writing as Richard Bachman) novel, The Regulators, Terre Haute is mentioned as one the places to escape to by the character Audrey Wyler.

Terre Haute's history is the subject of a weekly public radio program based in Bloomington, Indiana, called Hometown with Tom Roznowski, which describes various aspects of Terre Haute in the summer of 1926. Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash, by Vigo County Historian Mike McCormick, is a concise history of the city published in November 2005 by Arcadia Publishing Company.

During the Quantum Leap episode, The Leap Home: Part 1 - November 25, 1969 (1990); the father of lead character Dr. Samuel Beckett (Scott Bakula) remarks that while "Sam will likely end up at Harvard, I know he's still hoping for a basketball scholarship from Indiana State."

On Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, the character of teacher Mrs. Quick identifies Terre Haute as her hometown.

The popular web comic Penny Arcade mentions Terre Haute in a strip. [3]

Terre Haute is the stated hometown of Tony, the stalker of hero Theresa Bedell, in Rebecca Gilman's play Boy Gets Girl.

The Nerd, a two-act comedy by playwright Larry Shue, is set in Terre Haute.

Terre Haute was mentioned in the NBC series Parks and Recreation as the origin city of the founder of the town where the show takes place.

Terre Haute is mentioned in T.S. Eliot's French poem "Lune de Miel".

Terre Haute is mentioned in I Love Lucy "Lucy meets Superman". Lucy tries to get Superman to come to little Ricky's birthday party. Ricky calls Lucy and says "I talked to his secretary and he is leaving Saturday for Terre Hoot." Lucy responds "Terre Hoot?" Ricky replies "Yes, Terre Hoot, Terre Hoot, Indiana."

In the Blues Brothers film, Matt "Guitar" Murphy complains about the quality of the cabbage roll served during his stint in the Terre Haute Federal Pen.

Terre Haute is the name of the 9th song from the 2010 album "The Threshingfloor" by the Denver, Colorado based band Wovenhand.

Terre Haute is mentioned on "The West Wing" in reference to a federal execution.

In one episode of One Day At A Time, the divorced mother, played by Bonnie Franklin, says she is going to Terre Haute to do some shopping.

On an episode of The Middle, the father says he is driving to Terre Haute to buy his son a gift for Christmas.

"Plagued by Poverty"

I'm confused about the line in the article that Terre Haute is plagued by blight and poverty.

"...the medium income for a household in the city is $28,018, and the median income for a family is $37,618. Males have a median income of $29,375 versus $21,374 for females. The per capita income for the city is $15,728. 19.2% of the population and 14.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 17.4% of those under the age of 18 and 11.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line."

and

" Overall, however, the downtown area of Terre Haute continues to be plagued by much blight and poverty."

From this article, "19.2% of the population is below the poverty line and, according to Wikipedia, " In 2008, 13.2% (39.8 million) Americans lived in relative poverty."

Taking into account the extremely low cost of living here, though, I'm not sure if it's all right to say that Terre Haute's plagued by poverty per se. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.157.206.227 (talk) 03:16, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

=

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Terre Haute, Indiana/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

How does Evan Bayh have a connection to Terre Haute as having lived here? He was an undergrad at IU, not ISU. While I am not old enough to remember if his dad Birch lived in TH at any time, other than having been Governor, and a US Senator, I dont of Evan having ever lived in Indiana. Dougsnow 08:58, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 08:58, 28 July 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 07:49, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

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Why virtually no mention of Eugene V. Debs?

It seems like an important topic to miss. His home, the Eugene V. Debs house is on the National Register for Historic Places and is equally (and I would argue more) important historically as Paul Dresser.

Indiana is politically a very conservative, "red" state. Is that why a different kind of "red" is being omitted from this city's narrative here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.218.48.14 (talk) 13:13, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

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KKK rally

A previous editor removed the mention of the 1923 KKK rally from the page because the rally took place outside of Terre Haute and only the march happened in Terre Haute. I believe that the information should be maintained. From further research, it appears that "Forest Park" refers to an area of undeveloped land to the northeast that may have at the time been five miles north but is now only just past the official border for Terre Haute. Additionally, as the other editor mentioned, the march did take place in Terre Haute and should therefore be relevant to the page, but it was removed as well. I think that the march alone is significant enough to be kept, and if we keep the march, we should keep its context of the state's largest ever rally. Isslwc (talk) 16:19, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

References

Citation for including TH in Sundown towns in indiana?

I'm not sure if this page or the category page is the best place to ask this but Terre Haute is listed in the category of Sundown Towns in Indiana and there's no mention of that anywhere in the article. So either evidence needs to be added or it needs to be removed from the category Jccalhoun (talk) 20:43, 14 August 2022 (UTC)