Poe, Edgar Allan, House, National Historic Site

About this property

The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site is a preserved home once rented by American author Edgar Allan Poe, located at 532 N. 7th Street, in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though Poe lived in many houses over several years in Philadelphia (1838 to 1844), it is the only one which still survives. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. Poe lived in at least three different locations in Philadelphia, including homes on Arch Street, on 16th and Locust Streets, and on Coates Street near 25th Street. While living in Philadelphia, Poe published some of his most well-known works, including "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Gold-Bug". It has been called his most prolific period. Poe published 31 stories during his time in Philadelphia as well as several literary criticism pieces, including his February 1841 review of Charles Dickens's novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. In reviewing the novel, which inspired Poe's 1845 poem "The Raven", he correctly predicted the novel's resolution before its final serialized installment was published. Dickens is said to have remarked, "The man must be the devil". Poe's years in the city have been described as the happiest of his life. The Historic Site is the only one of Poe's Philadelphia homes still standing and is located in the historical Spring Garden district on the northern edge of Philadelphia. Poe rented the house early in 1843 and is believed to have lived there for about a year or less along with his wife Virginia and his aunt/mother-in-law Maria Clemm. It is uncertain when the family moved into the home, which was then at the corner of Seventh Street and Brandywine Alley (no longer extant) though believed to be some time before June. In a letter to James Russell Lowell dated June 20, 1843, Poe invites Lowell to visit him: "My address is 234 North Seventh St., above Spring Garden, West Side." The neighborhood was then predominantly made up of Quakers. Speculation as to which stories and poems were written in this home are unprovable, but suggestions include "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains", "The Balloon-Hoax", and "Eulalie". Maria Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law and aunt, maintained the home for the small family. A neighbor later recalled: "Mrs. Clemm was always busy. I have seen her mornings clearing the front yard, washing the windows and the stoop, and even white-washing the palings. You would notice how clean and orderly everything looks." A visitor referred to the home as little more than a lean-to. Poe occasionally had difficulty paying rent, though the landlord, a plumber, was tolerant of this. The family moved out the first week in April 1844 and made their way to New York. The family's decision to move out of the home may have been prompted by Virginia's health, as she was struggling with tuberculosis.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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