The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, located at 203 North Amity St. in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

, is the former home of American writer

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wid ...

in the 1830s. The small unassuming structure, which was opened as a

writer's house museum Writers' homes (sometimes writer's, author's or literary houses) are locations where writers lived. Frequently, these homes are preserved as historic house museums and literary tourism destinations, called writer's home museums, especially when t ...

in 1949, is a typical row home. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1972. Due to a loss of funding by the city of Baltimore, the Museum closed to the public in October 2012. Poe Baltimore, the Museum's new governing body, reopened the museum to the public on October 5, 2013. The house is the site for the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards, held in October of each year.

History

The brick home, then numbered 3 Amity St.,Silverman, Kenneth. ''Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance''. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. p. 96. and now numbered 203 North Amity Street, is assumed to have been built in 1830 and rented by Poe's aunt Maria Clemm in 1832. Clemm was joined in the home by her ailing mother, Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, and her daughter

Virginia Clemm Virginia Eliza Poe (née Clemm; August 15, 1822 – January 30, 1847) was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and publicly married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27. Biographers disagree as to the na ...

. Edgar Allan Poe moved in with the family in 1833 around the age of 23, after leaving

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. Virginia was 10 years old at the time; Poe would marry her three years later, though their only public ceremony was in 1836. Poe lived in the house from about 1833 to 1835. The house was rented using

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

money that Elizabeth collected thanks to her husband, David Poe Sr., who was a veteran of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. The home is small and Poe's room on the top floor has a ceiling with a sharp pitch which is six feet high at its tallest point. In the 1930s, homes in the area, including Poe's, were set for demolition to make room for the "Poe Homes"

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, de ...

project. The house was saved by the efforts of th
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
which made arrangements with the city of Baltimore and opened the home a

in 1949. Former displays in the Museum included a lock of Poe's hair, a small piece of Poe's coffin, some original china that once belonged to John Allan (Poe's guardian after

Eliza Poe Eliza Poe ( Elizabeth Arnold; formerly Hopkins; 1787 – December 8, 1811) was an English actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe. Life and career Elizabeth Arnold was born to Henry and Elizabeth Arnold in London in th ...

's death), and a large reproduction of the portrait of Virginia Clemm painted after her death as well as many other Poe-related images. An original 1849

obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

by Rufus Griswold in the October 24, 1849 edition of the ''Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper'' was also displayed along with a reprint of Poe's original announcement for the creation of a new literary magazine to be called '' The Stylus'' — an endeavor that never came to fruition. In 1979 during the house renovations, workers lifted the floorboards and found skeletal remains, reminiscent of Poe's story "

The Tell-Tale Heart "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is related by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator's sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the n ...

." These were found to be animal bones discarded into what is known as a "trash pit" or

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and eco ...

beneath the home. In the period from 1980 to 2011, the Museum hosted a number of Poe events throughout the year. It claimed, for example, the largest Poe birthday celebration in the world held every January at the

Westminster Hall and Burying Ground Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is a graveyard and former church located at 519 West Fayette Street (at North Greene Street) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It occupies the southeast corner of West Fayette and North Greene Street on ...

, where Poe was buried following his death in October 1849. In 2009, the museum staged a third funeral for Poe (theatrical) for the Poe Bicentennial at Westminster Hall. Over 1,200 people attended two services. In 2011, City of Baltimore officials reduced the Museum's subsidy, a decision that ultimately led to its closure in 2012. After the City cut off its $85,000 in annual support in 2011, the Museum was operating on reserve funds to the amount of $380,000 in the Poe House Fundraising account. Efforts to secure the Museum's future came from such diverse places as: the non-profit projec
Pennies For Poe: Save the Poe House in Baltimore
the New York City based non-profit theatre compan
Bedlam Ensemble's
staging of ''The Delirium of Edgar Allan Poe'', and the 2012 film ''The Raven''. In 2012, According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, the Museum was closed on September 28, 2012 with no advance public notice. Jeff Jerome, the Museum's

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

for more than three decades, was laid off. In 2013 The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum was re-opened to the public, under the auspices of Poe Baltimore, a non-profit organization created to operate and maintain the house museum (see next section.) New annual programs at Poe House include The International Edgar Allan Poe Festival and the Saturday 'Visiter' Awards. In 2020, Poe House was entered into the American Library Association's ''United For Libraries Literary Landmarks Register''. It was the first historical site in the State of Maryland to be entered in the list. The dedication ceremony was held at Poe House on the anniversary of Poe's birthday, January 19, 2020. The museum is open weekly for public tours, though it has suffered temporary closure in 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The museum continues virtual tours during the emergency closure.

Poe Baltimore

In 2013, a new non-profit organization, Poe Baltimore, was established to serve as the museum's new governing body and operate the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. It reopened to the public on October 5, 2013. Poe Baltimore is an independent organization, and the Board of Directors and volunteer corps include members from the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. The museum hosts monthly and annual events at Poe House and around the City of Baltimore. In 2018, the museum created a new annual event, the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival & Awards (Poe Fest International), a two-day outdoor festival held in the shadow of Poe House, commemorating the anniversary of Poe's mysterious death in Baltimore. The festival includes tours of other sites in Baltimore associated with Poe, as well as a funeral re-enactment at the historic Carroll Mansion. The festival drew two thousand visitors in both its first and second years. In 2019, Poe Baltimore created the Saturday 'Visiter' Awards, an honor recognizing art and writing inspired by Poe. The awards are named for the ''Baltimore Saturday Visiter'' (sic), a periodical that awarded Edgar Allan Poe first prize for his short story, ''MS Found in A Bottle'', in 1833.

Description

The Poe House is a story two-bay brick structure with a gabled metal roof. The front door is on the left side of the west elevation, at the top of a wood stoop. The house is flanked on the north by a contiguous building; the south elevation is windowless. A single gabled

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

is centered in the west roof. To the rear a two-story ell projects from the south side of the main block. Its shed roof slopes to the north. The house sits on the western edge of an active low-income housing project, aptly named The Poe Homes, in the west Baltimore neighborhood of Poppleton. The house is entered through the front living room, with a dining room to the rear and two steps down. From the dining room narrow stairs lead to the basement and the second floor. Two bedrooms occupy the second floor, and stairs lead to a small attic or garret, which may have been occupied by Poe. The house retains the majority of its original woodwork.

Works penned in this house

Though it cannot be fully proven, the Poe Society alleges that the following works were created while Poe was staying in this house:

Poe House in popular culture

In the opening scene of season 3, episode 2 " All Due Respect," of the HBO series ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...

'', two low-level members of the Barksdale Gang recall how one was once approached by a white tourist asking him if he knew the location of the "Poe House". Misunderstanding, he replies "Look around, take your pick!" ''The Wire'' chronicles the activities of the fictional Barksdale Organization based in west Baltimore, where the Poe House is located. In season 3 of the Telltale Games video game version of '' The Walking Dead'', one house in the Prescott camp is a visual homage to the Poe House.

References

External links

Poe BaltimoreThe Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
* ttp://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/77?tour=12&index=12#.UlcUlijcGgw Explore Baltimore Heritage. Edgar Allan Poe House. By Ryan Artes, University of Baltimorebr>Poe House: Landmark Returns with a "Poe"-pen House. Oct. 3, 2013
*
Poe House on Google Street View
{{authority control Biographical museums in Maryland Edgar Allan Poe Historic house museums in Maryland Houses completed in 1830 Houses in Baltimore Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore Literary museums in the United States Museums in Baltimore National Historic Landmarks in Maryland Poppleton, Baltimore 1830 establishments in Maryland Museums established in 1949 Poe, Edgar Allan House and Museum Baltimore City Landmarks