Posted September 28, 2012

The City of Baltimore closed the Poe House and Museum today, Friday, 28 September, 2012.

The Poe House and Museum in Baltimore has been run since 1979 by the city, under the stewardship of CHAP (the Commission on Historic Architecture and Preservation) under the keen leadership of Curator Jeff Jerome.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore's beleaguered Edgar Allan Poe House will be shutting its doors Friday, with plans to reopen in 2013 under the auspices of a nonprofit group hoping to increase attendance and make the city landmark self-sufficient.

The house, which normally closes for the winter in December, could reopen as early as next spring, said Thomas Stosur, director of the city's Department of Planning. Plans for the site are still being formulated by the nonprofit Poe Baltimore, which will oversee the house and work to increase its visibility and viability. Stosur said a detailed plan for the house and its operation would be presented to the city's Board of Estimates on Oct. 3. READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bs-ae-poe-house-20120925,0,605945.story

Although Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809, the Poe clan originates in Ireland and settled in Baltimore around 1755. Here, the Poe family thrived, with Poe’s grandfather, David Poe, Sr., serving in both the American Revolution and The War of 1812. Poe’s father, David, Jr., was born in Baltimore.

Upon his parents death at the age of three, Edgar Poe was taken in and raised by the Allan family of Virginia. A young man in his 20s, Edgar Allan Poe returned to Baltimore in the early 1830s to reconnect with his birth family. Briefly they lived on Wilks Street, in Mechanics Row. It was from 1832 to 1835 that Poe lived at 203 N. Amity Street (then, No. 3) in Baltimore. Here he lived with his grandmother Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, his aunt Maria Clemm, and his cousins Virginia and Henry Clemm.

It was at this humble address that Poe transitioned from being a poet to being a writer of short stories. It was in Baltimore that he made his first money as a writer. After the death of his grandmother, the family moved to Virginia. Poe lived and worked through-out the rest of his life, in Richmond, Philadelphia and New York, struggling to elevate the art of writing. After major success with the publication of his poem “The Raven” in 1845, Poe died under mysterious circumstances in Baltimore in 1849. The city that attracted his forefathers claims him to this day, as he is buried at Westminster Hall on Fayette and Greene Streets.

Built in 1830, for its first one hundred years, the house on Amity Street in West Baltimore survived the wrecking ball, when, in the late 1930s, The Poe Society obtained The House (sitting vigil night and day to keep the wreckers from demolishing it), and managed to open it to the public as a museum in 1949. In 1979, care and custodianship was turned over to the City of Baltimore and CHAP (the Commission on Historic Architecture and Preservation) under the keen leadership of Curator Jeff Jerome. The Poe House and Museum was placed on the National Historic Register in 1972. The Poe House and Museum closed on September 28, 2012, ending the custodianship of the City of Baltimore.

Stay with us here, at Poe Forevermore, as we update you with news and developments!

UPDATE: BALTIMORE SUN EDITORIAL, OCTOBER 1, 2012: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-poe-house-20121001,0,3902331.story