Earth and Space News: Edgar Allan Poe Named Mount Tom Rocky Outcrop in Riverside Park

Summary: Edgar Allan Poe named the Mount Tom rocky outcrop, now part of Riverside Park in Manhattan's Upper West Side (UWS), after one of his landlord's sons.

Edgar Allan Poe named Mount Tom, an outcrop of Manhattan schist on the edge of Manhattan's Riverside Park, after Thomas Brennan, who knew the poet as a lodger in the Brennan farmhouse; young Tom grew up to become Commissioner of the Department of Charities and Correction (1870-1880); Mount Tom, image obtained Wednesday, June 5, 2019: Eden, Janine and Jim (edenpictures), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Edgar Allan Poe named Mount Tom, a rocky outcrop located at 83rd Street and Riverside Drive and now part of Riverside Park in the Upper West Side (UWS) of New York City's borough of Manhattan, in honor of one of his landlord's sons.

In summer 1845 American editor, literary critic, poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849) moved with his first-cousin wife, Virginia Eliza Poe (née Clemm; Aug. 15, 1822-Jan. 30, 1847), and paternal-aunt mother-in-law, Maria Poe Clemm (March 17, 1790-Feb. 16, 1871), into a farmhouse situated as "a picturesque spot" on 216 acres that extended ". . . from a point about 200 feet west of Central Park to the Hudson River," as described by American philologist James Albert Harrison (Aug. 21, 1848-Jan. 31, 1911) in Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (1903; page 224). The modern-day intersection of 84th Street and Broadway roughly marks the location of the rocky knoll-perched farmhouse, according to author, blogger, lecturer and historian Tom Miller in "The Lost Brennan House -- 84th Street and Broadway," posted June 19, 2017, on his Daytonian in Manhattan website.

This 19th-century farm was situated in the "bucolic village of Bloomingdale," as described by author Esther Crain in "A rocky West Side knoll inspires Edgar Allan Poe," posted May 23, 2016, on her Ephemeral New York blog. The retention of old local names characterized upper New York City, as explained by Dr. Appleton Morgan (born James Appleton Morgan; 1845-1928), author and president of the Shakespeare Society of New York, in "Edgar Allan Poe in New York," published in Valentine's Manual of Old New York (1922; pages 275-276), edited by Scottish-born New York historian and Museum of the City of New York (1923) founder Henry Collins Brown (July 26, 1862-July 3, 1961).

“In 1844 -- and indeed for fifty years after -- upper New York City, below the Harlem River, was still known by its old local names: on the East side, Yorkville and Harlem; on the West side, Bloomingdale, Carmansville, Harsenville, Manhattanville, Washington Heights, while beyond them New Yorkers still directed each other to Marble Hill, Kingsbridge, Central Bridge, McComb’s Dam and the like. Between these were no boundaries, save stone fences” (Dr. Appleton Morgan, pages 275-275).

Edgar Allan Poe's consumption and his wife's tuberculosis influenced Poe's search for lodging near the Harlem River. The tidal strait separates Manhattan from the Bronx and flows between the East River, which separates the Bronx from Queens and Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens, and the Hudson River, which defines Manhattan's western border.

“Poe was advised to seek summer quarters among the ancient farmhouses along the Hudson River as no more expensive than the stuffy precincts of Amity Street and Waverley Place, and he found his way to Harsenville and Bloomingdale. The most southerly of the Bloomingdale farms was probably the Brennan farm, lying between the river and the Bloomingdale road whose course Broadway now defines and follows) and between Eighty-third and Eighty-fifth Streets as now defined” (Dr. Appleton Morgan, page 276).

The Brennan farmhouse is also known as the House Where Edgar Allan Poe Wrote the Raven; "House Where 'The Raven' Was Written, Near 84th Street New York," illustrated by English Australian illustrator John Alfred Huybers (1859-1920), in George Woodberry, The Life of Edgar Allan Poe Personal and Literary, vol. II (1909), opposite page 114: Not in copyright, via Internet Archive

The Bloomingdale farm that attracted the Poe family had been purchased around 1830 by farmer and coal businessman Patrick Brennan (1814-Dec. 3, 1870). Patrick and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Maloney Brennan (1815-Oct. 29, 1881), had six children, or, possibly 10, according to amateur photographer and author Daniel Holland in "The Farmhouse On 84th Street and Broadway," posted June 4, 2025, on his Danny Dutch website. Nine children are associated with the Find A Grave pages for Patrick and his wife, according to BKGeni, creator of Find A Grave memorials for the family.

Interactions between the Brennans and the Poes appear to have been positive, according to family memories shared with American journalist, lawyer and U.S. Army militarian General James Rowan O'Beirne (Sep. 25, 1839-Feb. 17, 1917). General O'Beirne had married Martha Susannah Brennan (1839-June 8, 1895), the oldest of the Brennans' children and the olest of the couple's five daughters, on Sunday, Oct. 26, 1862. Susannah ". . . was about ten years old when she became acquainted with the great poet," according to General O'Beirne, as recorded in Harrison's Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (1903; page 224).

Susannah's memories included the observation that “Poe was extremely fond of children, and Mrs. O’Beirne used to tell of lying on the floor at his feet and arranging his manuscript. She didn’t understand why he turned the written side toward the floor, and she would reverse it and arrange the pages according to the number upon them” (page 226).

Thomas Sebastian “Big Tom” Brennan (July 7, 1840-July 9, 1901) numbered as second oldest in the Brennan birth order and as oldest of the Brennans' four boys, according to the Brennan family memorials on the Find A Grave website. Susannah's husband, General O'Beirne, referenced his brother-in-law Tom as ". . . “Deputy-Commissioner Thos. S. Brennan, of the Department of Charities and Correction” to a party of friends, according to Harrison's Poe biography (volume I, page 224).

Young Tom inspired Poe to name one of the poet's favorite geological features after him. "It was Poe’s custom to wander away from the home in pleasant weather to ‘Mount Tom,’ an immense rock, which may still be seen in Riverside Park, where he would sit alone for hours, gazing out upon the Hudson" (page 225).

"Mount Tom, Eighty-Fourth Street and Riverside Drive. A favorite retreat of Edgar Allan Poe when he lived in the Brennan house. Photographed Sept., 1922," in Dr. A. Morgan, "Edgar Allan Poe in New York," page 277, in H.C. Brown, ed., Valentine's Manual of Old New York, No. 7 New Series 1923 (1922): via Internet Archive

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Dedication

This post is dedicated to the memory of our beloved blue-eyed brother, Charles, who guided the creation of the Met Opera and Astronomy posts on Earth and Space News. We memorialized our brother in "Our Beloved Blue-Eyed Brother, Charles, With Whom We Are Well Pleased," published on Earth and Space News on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, an anniversary of our beloved father's death.

Image credits:

BKGeni. "Mrs Martha Susannah Brennan O'Beirne." Find A Grave > Memorial. Added April 30, 2017. Find a Grave Memorial ID 1789215251.
Available via Find A Grave @ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178921525/martha_susannah-o'beirne

BkGeni. "Mrs Mary Elizabeth Maloney Brennan." Find A Grave > Memorial. Added April 30, 2017. Find a Grave Memorial ID 178921429.
Available via Find A Grave @ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178921429/mary_elizabeth-brennane

BKGeni. "Patrick Brennan." Find A Grave > Memorial. Added April 30, 2017. Find a Grave Memorial ID 178920957.
Available via Find A Grave @ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178920957/patrick-brennan

BKGeni. "Thomas Sebastian “Big Tom” Brennan." Find A Grave > Memorial. Added April 30, 2017. Find a Grave Memorial ID 178919831.
Available via Find A Grave @ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/178919831/thomas_sebastian-brennan

Brown, Howard. "Ex-Commissioner Thomas S. Brennan -- Coroner's Inquest Foreman." Carrie Brown: Murder In The East River > General Category > General Discussion. Dec. 25, 2024.
Available @ https://carriebrown.createaforum.com/general-discussion/ex-commissioner-thomas-s-brennan/

Brown, Howard. ". . . . Thomas J. Brennan was the Commissioner of Charities & Correction from 1870 to 1889. His duties were devoted to the improvement of Bellevue Hospital and Blackwell's Island.
Brennan was so well-respected that the patients begged him to stay on at Bellevue Hospital. He had implemented changes such as putting carpeting in the facility among other things. Soldiers from the Sixty-Ninth Regiment held a testimonial to him and presented him with a silver statue. The City of New York launched a steamship named after him in 1884 into the East River, some 216 feet long.
One thing that caught my eye is that he grew up in the former headquarters of General George Washington which was also the former home of Edgar Allan Poe and where Poe wrote, The Raven'.
He wrote a three-part article in the New York Evening World (Feb. 27-29, 1888) which I'll post next." Carrie Brown: Murder In the East River > General Category > General Discussion > Ex-Commissioner Thomas S. Brennan -- Coroner's Inquest Foreman. Dec. 25, 2024.
Available @ https://carriebrown.createaforum.com/general-discussion/ex-commissioner-thomas-s-brennan/

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Available via Google Books Read free of charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/dzNbAAAAMAAJ
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Earth and Space News

Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Edgar Allan Poe Named Mount Tom Rocky Outcrop in Riverside Park

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