Summary: Poe Park in the Bronx's Fordham neighborhood preserves the cottage whence Edgar Allan Poe walked to the Harlem River's High Bridge in 1848 and 1849.
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| Poe Cottage, Edgar Allan Poe's final residence, is sited in the northern tip of Poe Park in the Fordham neighborhood of the western Bronx; Friday, March 9, 2007, 14:40: Zoirusha @ English Wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Poe Park in the western Bronx's Fordham neighborhood preserves the cottage whence American editor, literary critic, poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe (Jan. 19, 1809-Oct. 7, 1849) enjoyed walks to Harlem River's High Bridge in the last year of his life, 1848 to 1849.
Poe, 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), moved into the cottage "around May of 1846," according to Dale Ramsay in "Poe Walking on the High Bridge," posted Jan. 7, 2011, as a newsletter article on the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct website. The cottage was located on Kingsbridge Road in the rural village of Fordham in Westchester County. Fordham became a neighborhood in the Bronx in 1898, approximately three years after the creation of New York City's northernmost borough in 1895.
The cottage known as Poe Cottage dates to around 1812, according to The Bronx County Historical Society, administrator of the cottage since 1975 as a historic house museum, in "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage" on the society's website. The home typified Fordham's working-class residences. Its five rooms comprised a kitchen, parlor and bedchamber on the main floor and two small rooms upstairs, according to "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage" on Historic House Trust's website.
The cottage was sited in the northwest corner of an almost triangularly-shaped tract of approximately one acre comprising part of the farm of early settler Hendrick Ryer, according to John Noble MacCracken (Nov. 19, 1880-May 7, 1970), Yale University assistant professor of English (1909-1913) and Vassar College's fifth president (1915-1946), in "Poe's Life in Fordham," pages 35-36, in Poe Centenary Exercises January 19, 1909, published in Transactions of The Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences, vol. I part II (May 1910). The cottage was mentioned in April 1816 as a boundary in a conveyance from Hendrick Ryer (1700-?) to his son Henry Ryer (1745-May 1832).
After Ryer, the plot experienced six purchases by five owners, of whom one purchased it twice, according to Westchester County deeds examined by MacCracken. The tract next passed to John Berrian, who sold it to Jonas Farrington (May 1790-1859) and his wife, Sarah Woolf Farrington (March 1796-?) in 1822 for $500.00. Peter Lawrence paid $600.00 in November 1827 for the acre, which he resold to Farrington at the same price in March 1828. On April 1, 1828, Richard Corsa (Feb. 9, 1793-1852) paid $650.00 for the plot, which was purchased for $1,000.00 on March 28, 1846, by John Valentine (April 28, 1770-Feb. 24, 2008), who became the Poe family’s landlord in May 1846.
The cottage's natural setting was pleasing to the Poe family. American essayist, poet and Transcendentalist Sarah Helen Power Whitman (born Sarah Helen Power; Jan. 19, 1803-June 27, 1878) described the cottage's enchanting abundance of nature in her biography of her former fiancé, Edgar Poe and His Critics, published in 1861.
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| urbanization-prompted crowding of Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, glass negative print ca. 1910-1920, Detroit Publishing Co. no. 073032: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress Photo, Print, Drawing |
The cottage's natural setting was pleasing to the Poe family. American essayist, poet and Transcendentalist Sarah Helen Power Whitman (born Sarah Helen Power; Jan. 19, 1803-June 27, 1878) described the cottage's enchanting abundance of nature in her biography of her former fiancé, Edgar Poe and His Critics, published in 1861.
“An English writer, now living in Paris, the author of some valuable contributions to our American periodicals, passed several weeks at the little cottage in Fordham, in the early autumn of 1847, and described to us, with a truly English appreciativeness, its unrivalled neatness and the quaint simplicity of its interior and surroundings. It was at the time bordered by a flower-garden, whose clumps of rare dahlias and brilliant beds of fall flowers showed, in the careful culture bestowed upon them, the fine floral taste of the inmates.
“. . . . He had some rare tropical birds in cages, which he cherished and petted with assiduous care. Our English friend described him as giving to his birds and his flowers a delighted attention that seemed quite inconsistent with the gloomy and grotesque character of his writings. A favorite cat, too, enjoyed his friendly patronage, and often when he was engaged in composition it seated itself on his shoulder, purring as in complacent approval of the work proceeding under its supervision” (pages 30-32).
“. . . . He had some rare tropical birds in cages, which he cherished and petted with assiduous care. Our English friend described him as giving to his birds and his flowers a delighted attention that seemed quite inconsistent with the gloomy and grotesque character of his writings. A favorite cat, too, enjoyed his friendly patronage, and often when he was engaged in composition it seated itself on his shoulder, purring as in complacent approval of the work proceeding under its supervision” (pages 30-32).
The High Bridge, which crossed the Harlem River as a conduit of the Croton River Aqueduct's water from Westchester County to Manhattan, was completed in October 1848. The High Bridge's proximity to Poe's Cottage encouraged walking enthusiast Edgar Allan Poe to include it in his treks. Sarah Helen Power Whitman noted the value of this recreation for Poe in her reminiscences of her former fiancé in Edgar Poe and His Critics.
"During Mr. Poe’s residence at Fordham a walk to High Bridge was one of his favourite and habitual recreations. The water of the Aqueduct is conveyed across the river on a range of lofty granite arches, which rise to the height of a hundred and forty-five feet above high-water level. On the top a turfed and grassy road, used only by foot-passengers, and flanked on either side by a low parapet of granite, makes one of the finest promenades imaginable.
“The winding river and the high rocky shores of the western extremity of the bridge are seen to great advantage from this lofty avenue. In the last melancholy years of his life – ‘the lonesome latter years’ – Poe was accustomed to walk there at all times of the day and night; often pacing the then solitary pathway for hours without meeting a human being" (page 32).
“The winding river and the high rocky shores of the western extremity of the bridge are seen to great advantage from this lofty avenue. In the last melancholy years of his life – ‘the lonesome latter years’ – Poe was accustomed to walk there at all times of the day and night; often pacing the then solitary pathway for hours without meeting a human being" (page 32).
The cottage homed the Poe family for approximately three years five months, from "around May of 1846" until Edgar Allan Poe's death. Virginia Clemm Poe succumbed to tuberculosis on Saturday, Jan. 30, 1847. Away from the cottage, Poe died a mysterious death in Baltimore, Maryland on Sunday, Oct. 7, 1849, approximately two years eight and one-third months after Virginia.
Maria Poe Clemm learned of her nephewly son-in-law's passing from a neighbor, Rebecca, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, according to Mrs. Cromwell's reminiscences, as reported in "Poe's Fordham," published in the March 31, 1889, issue of the New-York Tribune and as detailed by American author Mary Elizabeth Phillips (1857-1945) in "Section VIII Aftermath, 1849 to 1922" (pages 1542-1545) of Edgar Allan Poe, The Man, published in 1926.
". . . . On the morning that she heard of Poe’s death in Baltimore, Mrs. Cromwell went over to the house and found Mrs. Clemm packing up. She had received a letter from Poe saying that he was about to be married again to a Baltimore woman and he would come for her. She was overcome at the news of his death and repeated that if she could have been there to nurse him through his ‘bad spell’ he would have recovered. The neighbors raised money for her to go on to Baltimore. Poe had been behind in his rent for several months, and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned to sell-off their little household goods. Of these Mrs. Cromwell obtained a clock, a rocking-chair and the old family Bible" (New-York Tribune, fifth paragraph).
Maria, whom Poe called "Muddy," expressed her grief in a letter dated Oct. 9, to Edgar's cousin Neilson Poe (Aug. 11, 1809-Jan. 4, 1884), an American orphan court judge (1878-1884), canal and railway director and newspaper editor and proprietor. Maria and Edgar expressed their closeness as mother and son in addition to aunt and nephew.
"I have heard this moment of the death of my dear son Edgar -- I cannot believe it, and have written to you, to try and ascertain the fact and particulars—he has been at the South for the last three months, and was on his way home—the paper states he died in Baltimore yesterday—If it is true God have mercy on me, for he was the last I had to cling to and love, will you write the instant you receive this and relieve this dreadful uncertainty -- My mind is prepared to hear all -- conceal nothing from me," Maria wrote, according to an excerpt in "Maria Poe Clemm," published on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site's section of the National Park Service's website.
Poe cottage originally was located near the intersection of East Kingsbridge Road and Valentine Avenue. Urbanization necessitated the relocation of the cottage in 1913 to a site about 450 feet north of its original location, according to "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage" on The New York Preservation Archive Project (NYPAP) website. The cottage's new address, 2640 Grand Concourse, places it in the northern tip of Poe Park. The park, which lies between East 192nd Street and East Kingsbridge Road, was established in 1902. Poe Cottage opened to the public Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1913, according to "Poe Park" on the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation's website.
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation owns Poe Cottage. The Bronx County Historical Society has administered the cottage as a historic house museum since 1975. The cottage is a member of the Historic House Trust. Poe Cottage was designated as New York City Landmark (NYCL) No. 0110 on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 1966. Poe's last residence was added to U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), as reference number 80002588, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1980.
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| Edgar Allan Poe, his first-cousin wife, Virginia, and his paternal-aunt mother-in-law, Maria, moved to a cottage on Kingsbridge Road in Fordham in spring 1846; the cottage's location, at a two and one-half mile walk northeast of the High Bridge across the Harlem River, allowed Poe walking excursions that included traversing the bridge after completion of turfing and flagging of the surface at the end of October 1848; "Poe Cottage, Fordham, N.Y.," ca. Oct. 12, 1910, print engraved by Benjamin F. Buck, New York: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) |
Acknowledgment
My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.
Dedication
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:
Image credits:
Poe Cottage, Edgar Allan Poe's final residence, is sited in the northern tip of Poe Park in the Fordham neighborhood of the western Bronx; Friday, March 9, 2007, 14:40: Zoirusha @ English Wikipedia, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edgar_Allan_Poe's_house_in_the_Bronx.jpg
urbanization-prompted crowding of Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, glass negative print ca. 1910-1920, Detroit Publishing Co. no. 073032: No known restrictions on publication, via Library of Congress Photo, Print, Drawing @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/det.4a24594/; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poe_Cottage_-_pre_1910.jpg
(left) "© 1925, A.C. Co." (right)"23 Home of Edgar Allan Poe in Poe Park, New York City" still image by Chicago-based A.C. Company (1904-1956), also known as American Colortype Company
New York Public Library Digital Collections, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views: Free to use without restriction, via New York Public Library Digital Collections @ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-1f84-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
For further information:
New York Public Library Digital Collections, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views: Free to use without restriction, via New York Public Library Digital Collections @ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-1f84-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
For further information:
Bolton, Reginald Pelham. "The Poe Cottage at Fordham." Transactions of the Bronx Society of Arts Sciences and History, vol. I part V (1922), pages 1-20.
Available @ https://ia601303.us.archive.org/2/items/poecottageatford00boltrich/poecottageatford00boltrich.pdf
Available @ https://ia601303.us.archive.org/2/items/poecottageatford00boltrich/poecottageatford00boltrich.pdf
The Bronx County Historical Society. "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage." The Bronx County Historical Society > Visit Us: Poe Cottage.
Available via Bronx County Historical Society @ https://bronxhistoricalsociety.org/poe-cottage
Available via Bronx County Historical Society @ https://bronxhistoricalsociety.org/poe-cottage
Brown, Henry Collins. "The old house of Edgar Allan Poe, as it originally stood on Kingsbridge Road. Now in Poe Park. Restored and cared for by the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences." Page 23. Valentine's City of New York; A Guide Book, With Six Maps and One Hundred and Sixty Full Page Pictures. New York: Valentine's Manual, Inc., 1920.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/valentinescityof00browa/page/23/mode/1up
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/valentinescityof00browa/page/23/mode/1up
Corsa, Jim. "Corsa, Richard, b. 1793 -- Sells property to Valentine (soon to become Poe Cottage) -- 8 Mar 1846." The Corsa Family of Westchester County.
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=449&medialinkID=1555
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=449&medialinkID=1555
Corsa, Jim. "Farrington, Jonas Jr." The Corsa Family of Westchester County.
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I1666&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I1666&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Corsa, Jim. "Poe Cottage: Once owned by Richard Corsa b. 1793. Photos and notes from our trip there, July 2011." The Corsa Family of Westchester County.
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=259&medialinkID=1054
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=259&medialinkID=1054
Corsa, Jim. "Valentine, John." The Corsa Faily of Westchester County.
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I227&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I227&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Corsa, Jim. "Woolf, Sarah 1796." The Corsa Family of Westchester County.
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I629&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Available @ https://jimcorsa.com/getperson.php?personID=I629&tree=CorsasOfWestchester
Fowler, Robert Ludlow. The Real Property Law of the State of New York; Being Chapter Forty-Xix of the General Laws (Passed May 12, 1896; Chapter 547, laws of 1896.) With All the Amendments Thereto. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged by The Author. New York: Baker, Voorhis & Company, 1904
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cu31924017829742/
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/cu31924017829742/
Frey, Albert R. (Romer). Records of the Shakespeare Society of New York. New York: ca. 1897.
Gavan, Peggy. "1915: Jig and the Other Unknown Black Cat of Poe Cottage." The Hatching Cat. Oct. 23, 2022.
Available @ https://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/10/23/jig-unknown-black-cat-poe-cottage/
Available @ https://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/10/23/jig-unknown-black-cat-poe-cottage/
Haberman, Robb K.. "The Cat Men Of Gotham: An Interview With Peggy Gavan." The Gotham Center for New York City History > Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History. July 27, 2021.
Available @ https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-cat-men-of-gotham-an-interview-with-peggy-gavan
Available @ https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/the-cat-men-of-gotham-an-interview-with-peggy-gavan
Historic House Trust. "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage." Historic House Trust > Explore > New York's Historic Houses: The Bronx.
Available @ https://historichousetrust.org/houses/edgar-allan-poe-cottage/
Available @ https://historichousetrust.org/houses/edgar-allan-poe-cottage/
Kates, Ariel. "Beyond the Village and Back: Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in the Bronx." Village Presentation Blog. Jan. 14, 2020.
Available @ https://www.villagepreservation.org/2020/01/14/beyond-the-village-and-back-edgar-allan-poe-cottage-in-the-bronx/
Available @ https://www.villagepreservation.org/2020/01/14/beyond-the-village-and-back-edgar-allan-poe-cottage-in-the-bronx/
Lamb, M.J. (Martha Joanna Reade Nash Lamb). "Poe's Home at Fordham." Appleton's Journal, vol. 12, issue 278 (Juuly 18, 1874), pages 75-77.
Available via University of Michigan Library Digital Collections -- Making of America Journal Articles @ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acw8433.1-12.278/79:5
Available via University of Michigan Library Digital Collections -- Making of America Journal Articles @ https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/acw8433.1-12.278/79:5
MacCracken, Henry Noble. "Poe's Life in Fordham." Transactions of the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences, Vol. I Part II Poe Centenary Exercises (Jan. 19, 1909). New York: Published for the Society, May 1910.
Available via The Corsa Family of Westchester County @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=460&medialinkID=1576
Available via The Corsa Family of Westchester County @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=460&medialinkID=1576
Marriner, Derdriu. "Edgar Allan Poe Walked the High Bridge Between the Bronx and Manhattan." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, April 2, 2025.
Available via EASN @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2025/04/edgar-allan-poe-walked-high-bridge.html
Available via EASN @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2025/04/edgar-allan-poe-walked-high-bridge.html
Marriner, Derdriu. "In 1848 George Law Ended NYC High Bridge and Began Panama Mail Service." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
Available via EASN @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2025/03/in-1848-george-law-ended-nyc-high.html
Available via EASN @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2025/03/in-1848-george-law-ended-nyc-high.html
Morgan, Appleton, Dr. "As the Brennan mansion was demolished by the City of New York in opening West Eighty-fourth Street to the North River, so the Fordham Cottage was about to be demolished by the city in the course of widening the ancient Kingsbridge Road. Mr. Albert R. Frey's account of proceedings to rescue the cottage from the fate which had overtaken the Brennan mansion so many years before, is as follows:
"In the year 1895 I was a resident of Tremont, and being them the Secretary of The New York Shakespeare Society, I invited Dr, Appleton Morgan, the President of that Society, to luncheon with me on Decoration Day, 1895. After luncheon we walked over to the Poe cottage. Being a holiday, no work was being done on the widening of the Kingsbridge Road, the outlines of which were apparent as including the cottage, while piles of earth, and ploughs and big horse-shovels (it was before the day of steam-shovels), were everywhere. The cottage itself was still occupied by a family in very humble circumstances which expected to be evicted by the sub-contractors at any moment.
'I suppose that it was by a sort of mutual inspiration that we both exclaimed that here was an appropriate work for the Society, viz., to preserve the cottage as a shrine for posterity. I remember that just opposite the cottage was a small triangular plot of ground upon which were piled the contractors' and workmen's tools. 'There,' exclaimed Dr. Morgan, 'would be the spot to move the cottage to, and we could call it "Poe Park."' That, so far as I know, was the first suggestion of a Poe Park.'"
"Dr. Morgan and I lost no time in opening negotiations with Dr. Chauvet of Fordham, who happened to be the [283] owner of the land on which the cottage stood. Without awaiting the complicated legal steps to be taken by the city in condemning the necessary width for widening the Kingsbridge Road (if the same had been already begun), we induced Dr. Chauvet to get some house-movers and pull the cottage some seventeen feet back to the rear of his lot, which brought it to nearly the brink of an escarpment of rock reaching to the street to the west, below. The very next day after, we issued our circular appeals for moneys to enable us to purchase the cottage. The movement was everywhere popular. Meanwhile we rented the cottage of Dr. Chauvet and opened it for public inspection, and were rewarded by the public interest which drew thousands of visitors from all over the United States. We held a banquet in the cottage on Sunday, September 22nd, to which the public was invited, and speeches were made outlining our plans. Every New York City newspaper and almost every Boston and Baltimore daily newspaper gave us gratuitous notices. We were surprised to find that the whole country seemed to think that it was high time to honor the memory of Poe; as if up to then scant justice had been done him as America's first original poet and man of letters who was something more than a copyist or imitator of English men of letters. (At least that seemed the tenor of the innumerable newspaper notices we got.) The actors' profession seemed to remember that Poe's parents were of that profession, and offers for benefit performances poured in. Augustin Daly, Thomas W. Keene and many others outlined benefits and professional services.
"Dr. Morgan drafted a bill to ask the Legislature to [284] pass authorizing the city to lay out and institute a Public Park, to be called 'Poe Park,' suggesting either the triangle of land or other convenient space. It was at the suggestion of the late Hon. James A. Guilden of Fordham that the present large area was selected. And Dr. Morgan saw the bill through the Legislature, and went before Governor Morton to urge his signature, and was gratified to find on his desk one morning the following despatch:
"State of New York, Executive Chamber,
"Albany, May 22, 1896.
"Dr. Appleton Morgan, President of The New York Shakespeare Society:
"I beg to inform you that the so-called Poe Park Bill has been approved by the Governor and is now Chapter 547 of the Laws of 1896.
"Ashley W. Cole,
"Private Secretary."
"The next step was to obtain the consent of the Mayor of the City of New York. At Dr. Morgan's instance, Mayor Strong called a special meeting at the City Hall in the Borough of Manhattan. Here considerable opposition developed, not indeed to Poe, but to calling the Park 'Poe Park' exclusively. A literary society of which the late Gen. James Grant Wilson was the President, wanted a park that should need several acres, to be called "Poet's Park," and that should contain statues of all the poets born in a certain year. The principal speaker for this project was a lady who stated that her father was born in the required year and who was a 'poet' -- the year happening also to be the year that Poe was born. Mayor Strong followed the plan urged by Dr. Morgan and signed the Bill.
"As the city was now interested, the Shakespeare So-[287]ciety relaxed its efforts until the completion of Poe Park. It was not until the year 1913, when Hon. Cyrus C. Miller, the then President of the Borough of the Bronx, purchased for the City of New York the cottage and by the consent of the then Commissioner of Parks of the Department of the Bronx, moved the cottage to its present site at the northern end of Poe Park. On or about that date gentlemen and ladies residents of the Bronx organized The Bronx Society of Arts and Letters and offered the City or the President of the Bronx to undertake to maintain the cottage and keep it open for public inspection. The Shakespeare Society was highly gratified to find so distinguished a body of ladies and gentlemen who resided in the very near vicinity willing to assume duties which, from its distance from the cottage, it could only have undertaken at considerable inconvenience of detail. This Bronx Society has up to the present (1922) faithfully and adequately discharged its trust, and all the world may at its convenience visit Poe Cottage, tread the same floors that Poe trod, and in large measure see what he saw -- and especially find the very bed and bedstead where his little wife died covered from the bitter winter weather with only a cloak that her husband had retrieved from his West Point days." Pages 283-284, 287-288. "Edgar Allan Poe in New York." Pages 263-316. In: Henry Collins Brown, ed., Valentine's Manual of Old New York. No. 7 New Series. New York: Valentine's Manual, Inc., 1923.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/ldpd_6274889_000/page/n294/mode/1up
"In the year 1895 I was a resident of Tremont, and being them the Secretary of The New York Shakespeare Society, I invited Dr, Appleton Morgan, the President of that Society, to luncheon with me on Decoration Day, 1895. After luncheon we walked over to the Poe cottage. Being a holiday, no work was being done on the widening of the Kingsbridge Road, the outlines of which were apparent as including the cottage, while piles of earth, and ploughs and big horse-shovels (it was before the day of steam-shovels), were everywhere. The cottage itself was still occupied by a family in very humble circumstances which expected to be evicted by the sub-contractors at any moment.
'I suppose that it was by a sort of mutual inspiration that we both exclaimed that here was an appropriate work for the Society, viz., to preserve the cottage as a shrine for posterity. I remember that just opposite the cottage was a small triangular plot of ground upon which were piled the contractors' and workmen's tools. 'There,' exclaimed Dr. Morgan, 'would be the spot to move the cottage to, and we could call it "Poe Park."' That, so far as I know, was the first suggestion of a Poe Park.'"
"Dr. Morgan and I lost no time in opening negotiations with Dr. Chauvet of Fordham, who happened to be the [283] owner of the land on which the cottage stood. Without awaiting the complicated legal steps to be taken by the city in condemning the necessary width for widening the Kingsbridge Road (if the same had been already begun), we induced Dr. Chauvet to get some house-movers and pull the cottage some seventeen feet back to the rear of his lot, which brought it to nearly the brink of an escarpment of rock reaching to the street to the west, below. The very next day after, we issued our circular appeals for moneys to enable us to purchase the cottage. The movement was everywhere popular. Meanwhile we rented the cottage of Dr. Chauvet and opened it for public inspection, and were rewarded by the public interest which drew thousands of visitors from all over the United States. We held a banquet in the cottage on Sunday, September 22nd, to which the public was invited, and speeches were made outlining our plans. Every New York City newspaper and almost every Boston and Baltimore daily newspaper gave us gratuitous notices. We were surprised to find that the whole country seemed to think that it was high time to honor the memory of Poe; as if up to then scant justice had been done him as America's first original poet and man of letters who was something more than a copyist or imitator of English men of letters. (At least that seemed the tenor of the innumerable newspaper notices we got.) The actors' profession seemed to remember that Poe's parents were of that profession, and offers for benefit performances poured in. Augustin Daly, Thomas W. Keene and many others outlined benefits and professional services.
"Dr. Morgan drafted a bill to ask the Legislature to [284] pass authorizing the city to lay out and institute a Public Park, to be called 'Poe Park,' suggesting either the triangle of land or other convenient space. It was at the suggestion of the late Hon. James A. Guilden of Fordham that the present large area was selected. And Dr. Morgan saw the bill through the Legislature, and went before Governor Morton to urge his signature, and was gratified to find on his desk one morning the following despatch:
"State of New York, Executive Chamber,
"Albany, May 22, 1896.
"Dr. Appleton Morgan, President of The New York Shakespeare Society:
"I beg to inform you that the so-called Poe Park Bill has been approved by the Governor and is now Chapter 547 of the Laws of 1896.
"Ashley W. Cole,
"Private Secretary."
"The next step was to obtain the consent of the Mayor of the City of New York. At Dr. Morgan's instance, Mayor Strong called a special meeting at the City Hall in the Borough of Manhattan. Here considerable opposition developed, not indeed to Poe, but to calling the Park 'Poe Park' exclusively. A literary society of which the late Gen. James Grant Wilson was the President, wanted a park that should need several acres, to be called "Poet's Park," and that should contain statues of all the poets born in a certain year. The principal speaker for this project was a lady who stated that her father was born in the required year and who was a 'poet' -- the year happening also to be the year that Poe was born. Mayor Strong followed the plan urged by Dr. Morgan and signed the Bill.
"As the city was now interested, the Shakespeare So-[287]ciety relaxed its efforts until the completion of Poe Park. It was not until the year 1913, when Hon. Cyrus C. Miller, the then President of the Borough of the Bronx, purchased for the City of New York the cottage and by the consent of the then Commissioner of Parks of the Department of the Bronx, moved the cottage to its present site at the northern end of Poe Park. On or about that date gentlemen and ladies residents of the Bronx organized The Bronx Society of Arts and Letters and offered the City or the President of the Bronx to undertake to maintain the cottage and keep it open for public inspection. The Shakespeare Society was highly gratified to find so distinguished a body of ladies and gentlemen who resided in the very near vicinity willing to assume duties which, from its distance from the cottage, it could only have undertaken at considerable inconvenience of detail. This Bronx Society has up to the present (1922) faithfully and adequately discharged its trust, and all the world may at its convenience visit Poe Cottage, tread the same floors that Poe trod, and in large measure see what he saw -- and especially find the very bed and bedstead where his little wife died covered from the bitter winter weather with only a cloak that her husband had retrieved from his West Point days." Pages 283-284, 287-288. "Edgar Allan Poe in New York." Pages 263-316. In: Henry Collins Brown, ed., Valentine's Manual of Old New York. No. 7 New Series. New York: Valentine's Manual, Inc., 1923.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/ldpd_6274889_000/page/n294/mode/1up
Morgan, Appleton, Dr. "Edgar Allan Poe in New York." Pages 263-316. In: Henry Collins Brown, ed., Valentine's Manual of Old New York. No. 7 New Series. New York: Valentine's Manual, Inc., 1923.
Available via Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections @ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6274889_000/pages/ldpd_6274889_000_00000295.html
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Morgan, Appleton. “History of the Poe Park in the Bronx.” The New York Times. Sep. 3, 1905.
Munch, Janet Butler. "Poe Cottage." Lehman College > Arts & Culture > Lehman College Art Gallery > Bronx Architecture.
Available @ https://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/arch/buildings/poe.html
Available @ https://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/arch/buildings/poe.html
National Park Service. "Maria Poe Clemm." National Park Service > Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site > Person.
Available via NPS @ https://www.nps.gov/people/poe-mariaclemm.htm
Available via NPS @ https://www.nps.gov/people/poe-mariaclemm.htm
New York Preservation Archive Project. "Edgar Allan Poe Cottage." The New York Preservation Archive Project NYPAP > Preservation Database: Our Collections.
Available via NYPAP @ https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/edgar-allen-poe-cottage/
Available via NYPAP @ https://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/edgar-allen-poe-cottage/
The New York Times. "To Remove Poe's Cottage; Opponents of the Plan Heard by Mayor Strong." April 24, 1896, page 9.
Available via The New York Times @ https://www.nytimes.com/1896/04/24/archives/to-remove-poes-cottage-opponents-of-the-plan-heard-by-mayor-strong.htmlbr />
Available via The New York Times @ https://www.nytimes.com/1896/04/24/archives/to-remove-poes-cottage-opponents-of-the-plan-heard-by-mayor-strong.htmlbr />
New-York Tribune. “The Poe cottage where it now stands occupies a little plateau on the bluff, a few minutes’ walk above the Fordham station of the Harlem Railroad. The road winds up the hill from the railway over a natural pavement o the hard gray gneiss. In the summer one might pass the cottage without knowing there was one there. One end of it is close upon the road, but the sides and roof are so covered with vines and shaded with trees that the foliage hides the structure in a rustic arbor. The cottage itself is a simple and primitive affair that was built more than seventy years ago. It is long, low and box-shaped, the sides as well as the roof being shingled. A broad porch runs along the south side facing the lawn and in front of this grows a vigorous cherry tree which was planted by Poe in 1847 and which has rarely failed during recent years to bring out a full crop of fruit. On the lower floor there are two large square rooms and a kitchen. The middle room was used by Poe as a dining and sitting-room, and his visitors were also received here after his wife became ill. She then occupied the front room as a bedroom and it was there she died.
“The second floor has three rooms with low ceilings, but they are nearly plastered, airy and comfortable. One of these over the front room is of the same size and is said to have been Poe’s favorite room. The old-fashioned, brick chimney runs up through the roof and has an open fireplace where a cheerful wood fire can blaze and crackle in winter. . . .The quietest days of his life were spent in his home in Fordham. . . .
“The grounds around the cottage comprise about two acres. They slope away into a shady, grassy hollow. A bare ledge of rocks overlooks the cliff and the valley stretches into Connecticut and over the Sound to the blue and distant hills of Long Island. . . . He took long walks, often going to the city on foot, and his favorite route was down and over the Harlem at High Bridge. One of his neighbors, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, who lived for many years a few hundred yards from the Poe cottage, remembers him when, as a girl, she saw him for the first time in a cherry tree picking fruit. She thought him ‘nice-looking and sociable.’ He told her that he had brought his wife out there ‘to get good air and to dig in the dirt,’ but Mrs. Cromwell observed, ‘she was too weak and thin to dig much, and she soon became sick and never went out. Their house, she said, was plainly furnished, and they seemed to be very poor; but they were contented. Mrs. Clemm was called ‘Muddie’ and Poe ‘Eddie.’ On the morning that she heard of Poe’s death in Baltimore, Mrs. Cromwell went over to the house and found Mrs. Clemm packing up. She had received a letter from Poe saying that he was about to be married again to a Baltimore woman and he would come for her. She was overcome at the news of his death and repeated that if she could have been there to nurse him through his ‘bad spell’ he would have recovered. The neighbors raised money for her to go on to Baltimore. Poe had been behind in his rent for several months, and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned to sell-off their little household goods. Of these Mrs. Cromwell obtained a clock, a rocking-chair and the old family Bible.
“. . . . In 1883 the house and land were sold at public auction for $5,700. For a number of years it has been occupied by Mrs. E.D. Dechert, the widow of an engineer who assisted in making the plans of Central Park, and subsequently laid out the avenues and drives of Fordham. With the growth of the city, land has greatly increased in value within a few years in this neighborhood, and the site is one of the best in that portion of Fordham. The owner now intends to tear down the house if it is not taken by the Park Department this spring, and to dispose of the property in building lots.” "Poe's Fordham Cottage. Where the Poet Lived and Wrote." New-York Tribune. March 31, 1889, page 14.
Available via Library of Congress The Chronicling of America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
“The second floor has three rooms with low ceilings, but they are nearly plastered, airy and comfortable. One of these over the front room is of the same size and is said to have been Poe’s favorite room. The old-fashioned, brick chimney runs up through the roof and has an open fireplace where a cheerful wood fire can blaze and crackle in winter. . . .The quietest days of his life were spent in his home in Fordham. . . .
“The grounds around the cottage comprise about two acres. They slope away into a shady, grassy hollow. A bare ledge of rocks overlooks the cliff and the valley stretches into Connecticut and over the Sound to the blue and distant hills of Long Island. . . . He took long walks, often going to the city on foot, and his favorite route was down and over the Harlem at High Bridge. One of his neighbors, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, who lived for many years a few hundred yards from the Poe cottage, remembers him when, as a girl, she saw him for the first time in a cherry tree picking fruit. She thought him ‘nice-looking and sociable.’ He told her that he had brought his wife out there ‘to get good air and to dig in the dirt,’ but Mrs. Cromwell observed, ‘she was too weak and thin to dig much, and she soon became sick and never went out. Their house, she said, was plainly furnished, and they seemed to be very poor; but they were contented. Mrs. Clemm was called ‘Muddie’ and Poe ‘Eddie.’ On the morning that she heard of Poe’s death in Baltimore, Mrs. Cromwell went over to the house and found Mrs. Clemm packing up. She had received a letter from Poe saying that he was about to be married again to a Baltimore woman and he would come for her. She was overcome at the news of his death and repeated that if she could have been there to nurse him through his ‘bad spell’ he would have recovered. The neighbors raised money for her to go on to Baltimore. Poe had been behind in his rent for several months, and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned to sell-off their little household goods. Of these Mrs. Cromwell obtained a clock, a rocking-chair and the old family Bible.
“. . . . In 1883 the house and land were sold at public auction for $5,700. For a number of years it has been occupied by Mrs. E.D. Dechert, the widow of an engineer who assisted in making the plans of Central Park, and subsequently laid out the avenues and drives of Fordham. With the growth of the city, land has greatly increased in value within a few years in this neighborhood, and the site is one of the best in that portion of Fordham. The owner now intends to tear down the house if it is not taken by the Park Department this spring, and to dispose of the property in building lots.” "Poe's Fordham Cottage. Where the Poet Lived and Wrote." New-York Tribune. March 31, 1889, page 14.
Available via Library of Congress The Chronicling of America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
NYC Parks. "Edgar Allan Poe." Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation > Parks: Find a Park: Poe Park > Edgar Allan Poe > Park Information: Monuments.
Available @ https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poe-park/monuments
Available @ https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poe-park/monuments
NYC Parks. "Poe Park." Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation > Parks: Find a Park.
Available @ https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poe-park
Available @ https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poe-park
Pendennis. "Where Poe Wrote 'The Raven.'" The New York Times. Aug. 20, 1905.
Available via The Corsa Family of Westchester County @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=260&medialinkID=1057
Available via The Corsa Family of Westchester County @ https://jimcorsa.com/showmedia.php?mediaID=260&medialinkID=1057
Piper, John E. "The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the Bronx, New York City: A Reflection of American Culture and Society. University of Maryland thesis, 1977.
Phillips, Mary Elizabeth. Edgar Allan Poe, the Man. Volume I. Chicago IL; Philadelphia PA; Toronto Canada: The John C. Winston Co., 1926.
Available via Google Books Read free of charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Edgar_Allan_Poe_the_Man/Yuc2AAAAIAAJ
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Phillips, Mary Elizabeth. Edgar Allan Poe, the Man. Volume II. Chicago IL; Philadelphia PA; Toronto Canada: The John C. Winston Co., 1926.
Available via Google Books Read free of charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/dzNbAAAAMAAJ
Available via Google Books Read free of charge download PDF @ https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qad1Ip3CTED3zpI7VP-nOC5VosUYd2w0rElCTq_kxHPpMMhW9ukq0UqNU9Bb44joc435pSyLzkWZl2pzoeuR1qIWjWKyxT4ZJg0uxJFYkHggrcEXBOxntmMozb_oHgqieMLHs6L1XmeALnBPPFdagm2AXJvhvEjI96QJGyaPRu6xJ74I3AL-khClyNYzbXPz_jQeBAk2f_VY-ADa5l45pYR0mLbp2uRcU0M-Alva9t0hgwFsmHAxV_YHCNJzWJZv2PjUNXmtIpVaIfhYxjegrQTPPDeVTQ
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Phillips, Mary Elizabeth. "Over its bed of native rock, old Williamsbridge Road went winding up to the Fordham ledge where stood Poe’s tiny cottage home, on ‘Only an acre more or less of ground,’ later on to be saturated with human misery, anguish and immortality, but then ‘an acute angle in shape’; so these quoted words are in the record of facts, as paid for with $1000 by John Valentine to Richard Corsa on March 28, 1846. . . .” Page 1115. Edgar Allan Poe, the Man. Volume II. Section VI, 1844-1848 Later Home Life in New York City, pages 863-1251. Chicago IL; Philadelphia PA; Toronto Canada: The John C. Winston Co., 1926.
Available via Google Books Read free of charge @ https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/dzNbAAAAMAAJ
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Piper, John E. "Edgar Allan Poe at Fordham." Bronx County Historical Society Journal, vol. 9 no. 1 (1972): 1-18.
Piper, John E. Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the Bronx, New York: A Reflection of American Culture and Society. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. The University of Maryland, 1971.
Poe, Edgar Allan Poe. “Landor's Cottage.” Pages 1325-1343. The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. III Tales and Sketches (1978). Edited by T.O. (Thomas Olive) Mabbott. Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1978.
Available via Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore @ https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom3t036.htm
Available via Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore @ https://www.eapoe.org/works/mabbott/tom3t036.htm
"Poe's Fordham Cottage: Where the Poet Lived and Worked." "The Poe cottage where it now stands occupies a little plateau on the bluff, a few minutes’ walk above the Fordham station of the Harlem Railroad. The road winds up the hill from the railway over a natural pavement o the hard gray gneiss. In the summer one might pass the cottage without knowing there was one there. One end of it is close upon the road, but the sides and roof are so covered with vines and shaded with trees that the foliage hides the structure in a rustic arbor. The cottage itself is a simple and primitive affair that was built more than seventy years ago. It is long, low and box-shaped, the sides as well as the roof being shingled. A broad porch runs along the south side facing the lawn and in front of this grows a vigorous cherry tree which was planted by Poe in 1847 and which has rarely failed during recent years to bring out a full crop of fruit. On the lower floor there are two large square rooms and a kitchen. The middle room was used by Poe as a dining and sitting-room, and his visitors were also received here after his wife became ill. She then occupied the front room as a bedroom and it was there she died.
“The second floor has three rooms with low ceilings, but they are nearly plastered, airy and comfortable. One of these over the front room is of the same size and is said to have been Poe’s favorite room. The old-fashioned, brick chimney runs up through the roof and has an open fireplace where a cheerful wood fire can blaze and crackle in winter. . . .The quietest days of his life were spent in his home in Fordham. . . . “The grounds around the cottage comprise about two acres. They slope away into a shady, grassy hollow. A bare ledge of rocks overlooks the cliff and the valley stretches into Connecticut and over the Sound to the blue and distant hills of Long Island. . . . He took long walks, often going to the city on foot, and his favorite route was down and over the Harlem at High Bridge. One of his neighbors, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, who lived for many years a few hundred yards from the Poe cottage, remembers him when, as a girl, she saw him for the first time in a cherry tree picking fruit. She thought him ‘nice-looking and sociable.’ He told her that he had brought his wife out there ‘to get good air and to dig in the dirt,’ but Mrs. Cromwell observed, ‘she was too weak and thin to dig much, and she soon became sick and never went out. Their house, she said, was plainly furnished, and they seemed to be very poor; but they were contented. Mrs. Clemm was called ‘Muddie’ and Poe ‘Eddie.’ On the morning that she heard of Poe’s death in Baltimore, Mrs. Cromwell went over to the house and found Mrs. Clemm packing up. She had received a letter from Poe saying that he was about to be married again to a Baltimore woman and he would come for her. She was overcome at the news of his death and repeated that if she could have been there to nurse him through his ‘bad spell’ he would have recovered. The neighbors raised money for her to go on to Baltimore. Poe had been behind in his rent for several months, and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned to sell-off their little household goods. Of these Mrs. Cromwell obtained a clock, a rocking-chair and the old family Bible.
“. . . . In 1883 the house and land were sold at public auction for $5,700. For a number of years it has been occupied by Mrs. E.D. Dechert, the widow of an engineer who assisted in making the plans of Central Park, and subsequently laid out the avenues and drives of Fordham. With the growth of the city, land has greatly increased in value within a few years in this neighborhood, and the site is one of the best in that portion of Fordham. The owner now intends to tear down the house if it is not taken by the Park Department this spring, and to dispose of the property in building lots.” "Poe's Fordham Cottage: Where the Poet Lived and Worked." The New-York Tribute, vol. XLVIII, no. 15,477 (Sunday, March 31, 1889), page 14.
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
“The second floor has three rooms with low ceilings, but they are nearly plastered, airy and comfortable. One of these over the front room is of the same size and is said to have been Poe’s favorite room. The old-fashioned, brick chimney runs up through the roof and has an open fireplace where a cheerful wood fire can blaze and crackle in winter. . . .The quietest days of his life were spent in his home in Fordham. . . . “The grounds around the cottage comprise about two acres. They slope away into a shady, grassy hollow. A bare ledge of rocks overlooks the cliff and the valley stretches into Connecticut and over the Sound to the blue and distant hills of Long Island. . . . He took long walks, often going to the city on foot, and his favorite route was down and over the Harlem at High Bridge. One of his neighbors, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, who lived for many years a few hundred yards from the Poe cottage, remembers him when, as a girl, she saw him for the first time in a cherry tree picking fruit. She thought him ‘nice-looking and sociable.’ He told her that he had brought his wife out there ‘to get good air and to dig in the dirt,’ but Mrs. Cromwell observed, ‘she was too weak and thin to dig much, and she soon became sick and never went out. Their house, she said, was plainly furnished, and they seemed to be very poor; but they were contented. Mrs. Clemm was called ‘Muddie’ and Poe ‘Eddie.’ On the morning that she heard of Poe’s death in Baltimore, Mrs. Cromwell went over to the house and found Mrs. Clemm packing up. She had received a letter from Poe saying that he was about to be married again to a Baltimore woman and he would come for her. She was overcome at the news of his death and repeated that if she could have been there to nurse him through his ‘bad spell’ he would have recovered. The neighbors raised money for her to go on to Baltimore. Poe had been behind in his rent for several months, and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned to sell-off their little household goods. Of these Mrs. Cromwell obtained a clock, a rocking-chair and the old family Bible.
“. . . . In 1883 the house and land were sold at public auction for $5,700. For a number of years it has been occupied by Mrs. E.D. Dechert, the widow of an engineer who assisted in making the plans of Central Park, and subsequently laid out the avenues and drives of Fordham. With the growth of the city, land has greatly increased in value within a few years in this neighborhood, and the site is one of the best in that portion of Fordham. The owner now intends to tear down the house if it is not taken by the Park Department this spring, and to dispose of the property in building lots.” "Poe's Fordham Cottage: Where the Poet Lived and Worked." The New-York Tribute, vol. XLVIII, no. 15,477 (Sunday, March 31, 1889), page 14.
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
"Poe's Fordham Cottage: Where the Poet Lived and Worked." The New-York Tribute, vol. XLVIII, no. 15,477 (Sunday, March 31, 1889), page 14.
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1889-03-31/ed-1/seq-14/
"Poe's Home in Fordham." The New-York Tribune, vol. XLV, no. 14,098 (Sunday, June 21, 1885), page 9.
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @
Available via Library of Congress Chronicling America @
Pollin, Burton R. "Theodore Roosevelt to the Rescue of the Poe Cottage." The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1 Winter 1980-81), Special Section: William Styron; Essays on Poe and on the Southern Renaissance, pages 51-59.
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/26474754
Available via JSTOR @ https://www.jstor.org/stable/26474754
Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar Allan Poe: Mournful and Never-Ending Remembrance. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/edgarapoemournfu00silv/
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/edgarapoemournfu00silv/
Smith, Pete. "Frey, Albert Romer." Pages 159-160. American Numismatic Biographies. N.p.: 2025.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/2012AmericanNumismaticBiographies/page/159/mode/1up
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/2012AmericanNumismaticBiographies/page/159/mode/1up
Victor, Orville G. “The Poe Cottage: Reasons for Its Removal to the Park Opposite.” New-York Tribune, vol. LXXII, no. 24,162 (Jan. 10, 1913), page 8.
Available via Library of Congress The Chronicling of America @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1913-01-10/ed-1/?sp=8&st=image&r=-0.23,-0.226,1.297,0.733,0
Available via Library of Congress The Chronicling of America @ https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1913-01-10/ed-1/?sp=8&st=image&r=-0.23,-0.226,1.297,0.733,0
The Virtual Poe Toaster. "Fordham Cottage, built in 1812 in the Bronx in New York City, was the last home that Mr. Poe lived with his wife and mother-in-law. The Poes moved into the cottage in 1846, and it was there in January 1847 that Mrs. Poe succumbed to tuberculosis. Within these walls, Mr. Poe penned several works including Eureka, The Bells, and Annabel Lee. Following Mr. Poe’s passing in October 1849, Mrs. Clemm, unable to afford the rent – totaling $100 per year – moved out of the cottage. Afterwards, the cottage changed owners multiple times and fell into disrepair until, in 1895, when Dr. Joseph Edward Chauvet purchased the property, which he used for a dental office. The Shakespeare Society, which rented the cottage from Dr. Chauvet, failed to raise the $5000 needed to purchase it from him. However, in 1913, Dr. Chauvet, who had difficulty finding renters for the cottage due to the many Poe admirers coming to visit it, persuaded New York City to purchase the cottage. That same year, the city relocated the cottage from its cramped quarters to Poe Park across the street, where it resides today. In 1975, the Bronx Historical Society became the permanent custodians to the cottage, and, in 1980, Fordham Cottage was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Poe loved Fordham Cottage and even immortalized it in his tale Landor’s Cottage, first published June 9, 1849 in the Flag of Our Union. Source and photograph credit: bronxhistoricalsociety.org/poe-cottage/." Facebook. Aug. 5, 2024.
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/virtualpoetoaster/posts/fordham-cottage-built-in-1812-in-the-bronx-in-new-york-city-was-the-last-home-th/1010525754407705/
Available via Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/virtualpoetoaster/posts/fordham-cottage-built-in-1812-in-the-bronx-in-new-york-city-was-the-last-home-th/1010525754407705/
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