Edgar Allan Poe Cottage
Encyclopedia
The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, sometimes called simply Poe Cottage, is the former home of American writer Edgar Allan Poe
. It is located on Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse
in the The Bronx
, New York
, a short distance from its original location, and is now in the northern part of Poe Park.
The cottage is a part of the Historic House Trust
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
, has been administered by the Bronx County Historical Society since 1975, and is believed to have been built in 1797.
, and her mother Maria—moved in around May 1846 after living for a short time in Turtle Bay, Manhattan
. At the time, Fordham was rural and was only recently connected to the city by rail. The cottage, which then on Kingsbridge Road to the east of its intersection with Valentine Avenue, was small and simple: it had on its first floor a sitting room and kitchen and its unheated second floor had a bedroom and Poe's study. On the front porch the family kept caged songbirds. The home sat on 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) of land and Poe paid either $5 rent per month or $100 per year. Its owner, John Valentine, had bought it from a man named Richard Corsa on March 28, 1846, for $1000.
The family seemed to enjoy the home, despite its small size and minimal furnishings. "The cottage is very humble", a visitor said, "you wouldn't have thought decent people could have lived in it; but there was an air of refinement about everything." A friend of Poe's years later wrote: "The cottage had an air of taste and gentility... So neat, so poor, so unfurnished, and yet so charming a dwelling I never saw." In a letter to a friend, Poe himself wrote: "The place is a beautiful one." Maria wrote years later: "It was the sweetest little cottage imaginable. Oh, how supremely happy we were in our dear cottage home!" Poe's final short story, "Landor's Cottage", was likely inspired by the home.
In this home, Poe wrote his poems "Annabel Lee
" and "Ulalume
" while the family cat sat on his shoulder. During his time here, he also published his series on "The Literati of New York City", controversial gossip-like discussions of literary figures and their work, including Nathaniel Parker Willis
, Charles Frederick Briggs
, Thomas Dunn English
, Margaret Fuller
, and Lewis Gaylord Clark
. As their publisher Louis Antoine Godey
announced in his Lady's Book
, they would soon "raise some commotion in the literary emporium."
The Poe family befriended their neighbors, including the family of John Valentine, and Poe even served as a sponsor for baptism
for one of the local boys who was named "Edgar Albert". Poe also became friendly with the faculty at what was then St. John's College, now Fordham University
. He found the faculty to be "highly cultivated gentleman and scholars [who] smoked, drank, and played cards like gentleman, and never said a word about religion."
During the Poe family's time in the cottage, Virginia struggled with tuberculosis
. Family friend Mary Gove Nicholls wrote: "One felt that she was almost a disrobed spirit, and when she coughed it was made certain that she was rapidly passing away." Virginia died in the cottage's first floor bedroom on January 30, 1847. She was buried in the vault of the Valentine family on February 2. Poe died
a couple of years later on October 7, 1849, while in Baltimore
. At Fordham, Maria did not hear of his death until October 9, after he was already buried. Shortly thereafter, she moved out of the cottage to live with a family in Brooklyn for a time.
after the Parks Department found it to be too expensive of a proposition with rent approximately four times what Poe paid. Gill would later become Poe's first American biographer.
In 1895, the New York Shakespeare Society purchased the Cottage for use as a headquarters with the promise that it would be maintained in the condition in which Poe used it, however concerns about any move of the cottage sprung up almost immediately. An article titled "Shall We Save the Poe Cottage at Fordham" was published in The Review of Reviews in 1896, urging the New York State Legislature
to act on preserving the home with endorsements from Theodore Roosevelt
, Hamlin Garland
, William Dean Howells
, Rudyard Kipling
, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
, Henry Cabot Lodge
, Horace Scudder
and others.
In 1905, it was announced that $100,000 had been authorized by the state legislature for the restoration of the cottage and creation of a park in which to house the cottage after the owners were reported to be denying visitors access to the cottage. The restoration and park creation were not without complaint, and many felt the money would be better spent on other ventures and further that the cottage's authenticity would be lost if it were to be moved. The decision to move was finally made in 1910 and on November 13, 1913, Poe Cottage in Poe Park was dedicated at the corner of Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse
. In 1922, further reconstruction was undertaken by the New York Historical Society to restore the cottage to its original condition.
in The Bronx, and in 1966 it was recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
In 1974, vandals
struck again, leading to further criticism of the Cottage's management and preservation efforts.
Vandalism continued to occur over the next few years, though it tapered off by the end of the following decade, becoming less of a risk due in part to the increased use of live-in caretakers. In the late 1990s, the cottage was under the care of a graduate student in philology
who lived in the basement.
In 2007, the proposed Visitors Center for the Cottage and Bronx Historical Society in Poe Park was honored by the New York City Art Commissions 2007 Design Awards.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. It is located on Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse
Grand Concourse (Bronx)
The Grand Concourse is a major thoroughfare in the borough of the Bronx in New York City...
in the The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, a short distance from its original location, and is now in the northern part of Poe Park.
The cottage is a part of the Historic House Trust
Historic House Trust
The Historic House Trust of New York City was formed in 1989 as a public-private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to preserve the historic houses located within New York City parks, although most of the houses were not originally city-owned...
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, has been administered by the Bronx County Historical Society since 1975, and is believed to have been built in 1797.
Poe family years
The Poe family—which included Edgar, his wife Virginia ClemmVirginia Eliza Clemm Poe
Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe was the wife of American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The couple were first cousins and married when Virginia Clemm was 13 and Poe was 27...
, and her mother Maria—moved in around May 1846 after living for a short time in Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Turtle Bay, Manhattan
Turtle Bay is a neighborhood in New York City, on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. It extends between 41st and 54th Streets, and eastward from Lexington Avenue to the East River, across from Roosevelt Island...
. At the time, Fordham was rural and was only recently connected to the city by rail. The cottage, which then on Kingsbridge Road to the east of its intersection with Valentine Avenue, was small and simple: it had on its first floor a sitting room and kitchen and its unheated second floor had a bedroom and Poe's study. On the front porch the family kept caged songbirds. The home sat on 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) of land and Poe paid either $5 rent per month or $100 per year. Its owner, John Valentine, had bought it from a man named Richard Corsa on March 28, 1846, for $1000.
The family seemed to enjoy the home, despite its small size and minimal furnishings. "The cottage is very humble", a visitor said, "you wouldn't have thought decent people could have lived in it; but there was an air of refinement about everything." A friend of Poe's years later wrote: "The cottage had an air of taste and gentility... So neat, so poor, so unfurnished, and yet so charming a dwelling I never saw." In a letter to a friend, Poe himself wrote: "The place is a beautiful one." Maria wrote years later: "It was the sweetest little cottage imaginable. Oh, how supremely happy we were in our dear cottage home!" Poe's final short story, "Landor's Cottage", was likely inspired by the home.
In this home, Poe wrote his poems "Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He...
" and "Ulalume
Ulalume
"Ulalume" is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847. Much like a few of Poe's other poems , "Ulalume" focuses on the narrator's loss of a beautiful woman due to her death. Poe originally wrote the poem as an elocution piece and, as such, the poem is known for its focus on sound...
" while the family cat sat on his shoulder. During his time here, he also published his series on "The Literati of New York City", controversial gossip-like discussions of literary figures and their work, including Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Nathaniel Parker Willis , also known as N. P. Willis, was an American author, poet and editor who worked with several notable American writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day. For a time, he was the employer of former...
, Charles Frederick Briggs
Charles Frederick Briggs
Charles Frederick Briggs , also called C. F. Briggs, was an American journalist, author and editor, born in Nantucket, Massachusetts...
, Thomas Dunn English
Thomas Dunn English
Thomas Dunn English was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey who represented the state's 6th congressional district in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895. He was also a published author and songwriter, who had a bitter ongoing feud with Edgar Allan...
, Margaret Fuller
Margaret Fuller
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli, commonly known as Margaret Fuller, was an American journalist, critic, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the first full-time American female book reviewer in journalism...
, and Lewis Gaylord Clark
Lewis Gaylord Clark
Lewis Gaylord Clark was an American editor and the brother of Willis Gaylord Clark.-Biography:Clark was born in Otisco, New York in 1808. He succeeded Charles Fenno Hoffman as editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine, a role he held for over 25 years...
. As their publisher Louis Antoine Godey
Louis Antoine Godey
Louis Antoine Godey was an American editor and publisher, known as the founder of Godey's Lady's Book, the first successful American women's fashion magazine.-Biography:...
announced in his Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book
Godey's Lady's Book, alternatively known as Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, was a United States magazine which was published in Philadelphia. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil War. Its circulation rose from 70,000 in the 1840s to 150,000 in 1860...
, they would soon "raise some commotion in the literary emporium."
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
for one of the local boys who was named "Edgar Albert". Poe also became friendly with the faculty at what was then St. John's College, now Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
. He found the faculty to be "highly cultivated gentleman and scholars [who] smoked, drank, and played cards like gentleman, and never said a word about religion."
During the Poe family's time in the cottage, Virginia struggled with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. Family friend Mary Gove Nicholls wrote: "One felt that she was almost a disrobed spirit, and when she coughed it was made certain that she was rapidly passing away." Virginia died in the cottage's first floor bedroom on January 30, 1847. She was buried in the vault of the Valentine family on February 2. Poe died
Death of Edgar Allan Poe
The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate assistance",...
a couple of years later on October 7, 1849, while in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
. At Fordham, Maria did not hear of his death until October 9, after he was already buried. Shortly thereafter, she moved out of the cottage to live with a family in Brooklyn for a time.
The cottage is moved
The cottage's immediate use following the Poe family is uncertain; however, it was reported to be occupied by an 'old southern lady'. In 1874, an article by M. J. Lamb published in Appleton's Journal described a pilgrimage to the site and noted the cottage was "dreadfully out of repair". The cottage was sold at auction in 1889 for $775 to William Fearing Gill in the first step of preservationHistoric preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
after the Parks Department found it to be too expensive of a proposition with rent approximately four times what Poe paid. Gill would later become Poe's first American biographer.
In 1895, the New York Shakespeare Society purchased the Cottage for use as a headquarters with the promise that it would be maintained in the condition in which Poe used it, however concerns about any move of the cottage sprung up almost immediately. An article titled "Shall We Save the Poe Cottage at Fordham" was published in The Review of Reviews in 1896, urging the New York State Legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
to act on preserving the home with endorsements from Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Hamlin Garland
Hamlin Garland
Hannibal Hamlin Garland was an American novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers.- Biography :...
, William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells was an American realist author and literary critic. Nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters", he was particularly known for his tenure as editor of the Atlantic Monthly as well as his own writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novel The Rise of...
, Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
, Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Thomas Wentworth Higginson was an American Unitarian minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier. He was active in the American Abolitionism movement during the 1840s and 1850s, identifying himself with disunion and militant abolitionism...
, Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
, Horace Scudder
Horace Scudder
Horace Elisha Scudder was a prolific American man of letters and editor.-Biography:He was born into a Boston family; his brothers were David Coit Scudder and Samuel Hubbard Scudder...
and others.
In 1905, it was announced that $100,000 had been authorized by the state legislature for the restoration of the cottage and creation of a park in which to house the cottage after the owners were reported to be denying visitors access to the cottage. The restoration and park creation were not without complaint, and many felt the money would be better spent on other ventures and further that the cottage's authenticity would be lost if it were to be moved. The decision to move was finally made in 1910 and on November 13, 1913, Poe Cottage in Poe Park was dedicated at the corner of Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse
Grand Concourse (Bronx)
The Grand Concourse is a major thoroughfare in the borough of the Bronx in New York City...
. In 1922, further reconstruction was undertaken by the New York Historical Society to restore the cottage to its original condition.
Recent history
In 1962, Poe's Cottage was designated a landmarkLandmark
This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
in The Bronx, and in 1966 it was recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
In 1974, vandals
Vandalism
Vandalism is the behaviour attributed originally to the Vandals, by the Romans, in respect of culture: ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable...
struck again, leading to further criticism of the Cottage's management and preservation efforts.
Vandalism continued to occur over the next few years, though it tapered off by the end of the following decade, becoming less of a risk due in part to the increased use of live-in caretakers. In the late 1990s, the cottage was under the care of a graduate student in philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
who lived in the basement.
In 2007, the proposed Visitors Center for the Cottage and Bronx Historical Society in Poe Park was honored by the New York City Art Commissions 2007 Design Awards.
See also
- Edgar Allan Poe MuseumEdgar Allan Poe Museum (Richmond)The Edgar Allan Poe Museum is a museum located in Richmond, Virginia, dedicated to American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Though Poe never lived in the building, it serves to commemorate his time living in Richmond. The museum holds one of the world's largest collections of original manuscripts, letters,...
in Richmond, VirginiaRichmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area... - Edgar Allan Poe House and MuseumEdgar Allan Poe House and MuseumThe Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, located at 203 Amity St. in Baltimore, Maryland, is the former home of American writer Edgar Allan Poe in the 1830s. Now open as a museum, the small unassuming structure is a typical row home, and also houses the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. It was...
in Baltimore, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east... - Edgar Allan Poe National Historic SiteEdgar Allan Poe National Historic SiteThe Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is a preserved home once rented by American author Edgar Allan Poe, located in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...