by Having relatively recently been to the Edgar Allan Poe sites in Baltimore and Richmond, I was eager to get to the site in Philadelphia, the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site.
On the other hand, Doug had been to the home previously and did not seem especially excited to go back, even though admission was free and he is a big fan of Poe. Now I know why he was so underwhelmed!
Part of the problem is that Poe was poor during his lifetime, so he did not live in places likely to be preserved. His poverty also meant he moved around a lot, not staying in any one place very long, and certainly not taking much furniture along with him. The rented home in Philadelphia is no exception.
Poe lived in three different locations during his years in Philadelphia (1838 to 1844), but this is the only one that still survives. This is thanks to Richard Gimbel, son of the founder of the Gimbel’s department store, who was a Poe fan and purchased and refurbished the home in 1933, with several families living there in the intervening years.
The home is comprised of just a few empty rooms and a basement, all of which are empty and preserved just to a point where the natural decay of the structure has been halted. Poe lived here for about a year (1843) with his wife Virginia (who was suffering from tuberculosis at the time) and his aunt/mother-in-law (read about that here), Maria Clemm.
Poe’s former residence looked much different at the time he lived there. The house faced a street which is now an empty lot, and two additional homes were since tacked on to the house in a rather haphazard way. In fact, the part you assume is the front of the home as you approach it didn’t even exist when Poe lived there! The home today would be unrecognizable to him.
The additional space is used by the park service for some exhibits and administrative needs. Additionally, Poe wrote also laid out some thoughts on interior decorating in an 1840 piece entitled The Philosophy of Furniture, and some of the extra space is a room laid out according to the ideas presented in the article.
It is not especially exciting (especially considering I feel confident Poe did not recommend the CD player that’s on the shelf).
While living in Philadelphia Poe was prolific, publishing 31 stories, including The Tell-Tale Heart, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, and The Gold-Bug.
He also published several pieces of literary criticism, including his review of Charles Dickens’ novel Barnaby Rudge, which may or may not have inspired Poe to write The Raven (you can read about that here).
The only remaining Poe site on our list is the cottage in New York City, but that is going to be difficult to pull off given our upcoming travel schedule (we’ve already tried once unsuccessfully).
