Save the Poe House!

[EFerrari]

Baltimore has long been a fair-weather friend to Edgar Allan Poe, author of “The Raven” and many other poems. During his years in the city, where he lived with his wife, Virginia, he attracted fame as a writer. But Virginia died there in her mid-twenties, and Poe himself perished of mysterious causes in a Baltimore tavern; few attended his funeral, and he was buried in an unmarked grave. Over a century later, the Edgar Allan Poe House—a museum that inhabits Poe’s home at 214 North Amity Street—staged a double-funeral in his honor, which we reported on here.

Now the city has withdrawn funding from the Poe House for the second year in a row, which may mean the museum—located amid a housing project where many tourists fear to tread—will need to close. “The exhibits in Poe House are modest,” reports the New York Times:

some china and glassware from the household of Poe’s foster father, in Richmond; a telescope reputedly used by Poe; locks of Poe’s and Virginia’s hair; and a fragment of his coffin, though some of the items are only occasionally on display, for conservation reasons.

The Poe House, which is owned by the Baltimore City Housing Authority, is designated a landmark, so it’s in no danger of being torn down, even if it closes as a museum. It is about a mile from Poe’s grave in the Westminster Burying Ground, where for decades a mysterious visitor left a half-filled bottle of cognac and three roses every year on his birthday, Jan. 19.



http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2011/08/save-the-poe-house/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HarrietTheBlog+%28Harriet%3A+The+Blog%29&utm_content=Twitter

[Divernan]

1. Many of us are trying desperately to stay out of the "Poe" House!

Seriously, cultural landmarks are in for increasingly harder times, and this one being in an area "where tourists fear to tread", sounds doomed. Wonder if it's worth trying to get someone to move the whole building to a safer area - down around the Inner Harbor, perhaps?

[EFerrari]

2. I don't know the city. I saw the tweet from the @poetrynews

twitter feed.

[dtexdem]

3. Don't worry -- the way the economy is going, we'll all soon be in the Poe House.

;-)

[shireen]

4. Baltimore, like other major cities, has severe budget problems.

Baltimore is really proud of its association with Poe, so i don't think any closing of the Poe museum will be permanent. I think it will eventually re-open when the money situation improves (in a few years?), or a private effort will be launched to keep it open.

Our football team is called the Ravens. Maybe those guys with their multi-million dollar contracts will chip in some cash into a private fund to keep the museum alive. One can hope ...