Ivy Green

Ivy Green is the birthplace and childhood home of Helen Keller located in Tuscumbia, Alabama; it is preserved as a historic house museum. Helen Keller was born there in 1880, and the site interprets her early life and education.

The property’s best-known feature is the outdoor hand pump where Anne Sullivan taught Keller the connection between the spelled word and the sensation of water during their famous lesson in 1887. Visitors tour the house, see period furnishings and artifacts, and view the marked outdoor sites associated with Keller’s childhood.

The home has been maintained as a museum and educational site to commemorate Keller’s life and the teaching methods used by Anne Sullivan. The museum presents guided tours and occasional living-history demonstrations.

Ivy Green sits in Tuscumbia in Colbert County in northwest Alabama, within the small-city setting of the Tennessee Valley region.

• Water pump site: The outdoor pump on the grounds is preserved and interpreted as the spot of Helen Keller's breakthrough lesson with Anne Sullivan in 1887.
• Museum operations: Operates as a historic house museum with guided tours and living-history presentations focused on Keller's early life and education.

What to See #

• Ivy Green house: The modest 19th-century family home where Helen Keller was born in 1880; preserved with period furnishings and exhibits about her life and work.
• Water pump: An outdoor hand pump on the property marked as the location where Anne Sullivan taught the word 'water' to Helen Keller in their breakthrough lesson in 1887.