The Baltimore Poe House and Museum

The house is a small 2 1/2 story brick duplex (now part of a row of houses), containing 5 rooms. First floor: parlor (front) and kitchen (rear). Second floor: 2 bedrooms. Top floor: 1 bedroom (assigned by most biographers as Poe’s room, although others believe that he used the rear bedroom and that Virginia used the small attic bedroom). The stairs for both floors are very narrow and winding, especially those leading to the top floor. At some point after Poe’s residence, the back of the building was extended by about 4 feet. This extension remains, although the original size can be seen in the changing floorboards. All interior walls and ceilings are horse-hair plaster, probably whitewashed during Poe’s day. (The walls, ceilings and mantels are currently painted off-white, with all wood elements painted brown.) All rooms have uneven wooden plank flooring, two covered with carpeting. All doors, mantels, baseboards and related trim work are wood. There are three fireplaces in the house, two on the first floor (kitchen and parlor) and one on the second (front bedroom). The fireplaces in the parlor and bedroom share the same chimney. All fireplaces are lined with brick and have brick hearths.

The primary item on display is the house itself. In addition, a number of pieces related to Poe are exhibited, including glassware and china belonging to John Allan (Poe’s foster father), a telescope reputedly used by Poe, Poe’s sextant, a traveling desk (or lap desk) he presumably used at the University of Virginia and a full-sized color reproduction of the only known portrait of Poe’s wife, Virginia, done at her death in 1847. A set of Gustave Dore’s 1884 illustrations for Poe’s “The Raven” are featured on the second floor. A series of videos and other displays relate to Poe’s life as an author and his death (including several of the bottles of cognac left over the years at Poe’s grave by the mysterious “Poe Toaster” and a contemporary reprint of Griswold’s infamous obituary of Poe, here from the October 24, 1849 edition of the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper). Some furniture of the period, although not Poe’s, is also exhibited, primarily on the top floor.

Determining the exact dates of composition for Poe’s works is often complicated since some early works were rejected by publishers for several years. Chief among these were the eleven stories Poe had written as a collection he called “Tales From the Folio Club.” Although it was always Poe’s intent that these stories would be printed as a set, with each tale reflecting a different narrator in the style of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” he was unable to find a publisher and was forced by financial necessity to print them out of context as individual pieces. It is reasonable to assume that the following items were written during his stay on Amity Street.

Stories:

• “MS. Found in a Bottle” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, October 26, 1833)
• “The Visionary” (Submitted to the Baltimore Saturday Visiter in 1833. First published in Godey’s Lady’s Book for Jan. 1834)
• “Lion-izing. A Tale” (Southern Literary Messenger, May 1835)
• “Shadow-A Parable” (Southern Literary Messenger, September 1835)
• “Siope. A Fable” (Manuscript before May 4, 1833. First published in The Baltimore Book, a Christmas and New Year’s Present, 1838)
• “Berenice — A Tale” (Southern Literary Messenger, March, 1835)
• “Morella” (Manuscript, about 1835. First published in Southern Literary Messenger, April 1835)
• “King Pest the First. A Tale containing an Allegory” (Mabbott assigns a probable date of 1834. First published in Southern Literary Messenger, September 1835)
• “Hans Pfaall — A Tale” (Manuscript presumed as April or May, 1835; Southern Literary Messenger, June, 1835)

Poems:

• “Latin Hymn” (Manuscript, May 4, 1833)
• “Enigma [on Shakespeare]” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, Feb. 2, 1833)
• “Serenade” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, April 20, 1833)
• “To — [Sleep on]” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, May 11, 1833)
• “Fanny” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, May 18, 1833)
• “The Coliseum” (Baltimore Saturday Visiter, October 26, 1833)
• “To Elizabeth” (Manuscript from the album of Elizabeth Rebecca Herring, 1833)
• “To Mary [Winfree]” (Southern Literary Messenger, July 1835)

Reviews and Editorial Items:

• “[Review of R. M. Bird’s Calavar]” (Southern Literary Messenger, February 1835)
• “[Review of Laughton Osborn’s Confessions of a Poet]” (Southern Literary Messenger, April 1835)
• “[Review of J. P. Kennedy’s Horse-Shoe Robinson]” (Southern Literary Messenger, May 1835)
• “[Notice of the 8th issue (April) of the Southern Literary Messenger]” (The Baltimore Republican and Commercial Advertiser, May 14, 1835)
• “[Review of R. M. Bird’s The Infidel]” (Southern Literary Messenger, June 1835)
• “[Notice of the 9th issue (May) of the Southern Literary Messenger]” (The Baltimore Republican and Commercial Advertiser, June 13, 1835)
• “[Notice of the 9th issue (May) of the Southern Literary Messenger]” (The Baltimore American, June 15, 1835)
• “[Notice of the 10th issue (June) of the Southern Literary Messenger]” (The Baltimore Republican and Commercial Advertiser, July 10 1835)

• The house as it probably appeared around 1833
• The garret room of the house, possibly Poe’s room
• Map showing location of the house

As of September 28, 2012, the Baltimore Poe House and Museum will be closed. Although plans are subject to change, it is currently anticipated that the museum will re-open under the new arrangement, perhaps with limited hours, early in 2013.

The following official announcement was forwared to the Poe Society by Jeff Jerome, the curator being retired by the actions of the City of Baltimore to divest itself of responsibilty for running the museum:

The Poe Society of Baltimore also extends its gratitude to Jeff Jerome for more than three decades of devoted service.

The Baltimore Poe House and Museum is located at 203 Amity Street in West Baltimore. (See map under Images.)

From the Poe Grave: Head west on Fayette, past Martin L. King Blvd. to Schroeder Street. Turn right on Schroeder for 2 blocks to Saratoga. Turn right on Saratoga and go for about 1/2 a block to Amity. Amity is the 1st street on right (only). Turn right on Amity and look for the Poe House on the left side, near the end of the block. (A tall black antique-styled lamp stands in front of the house.)

From the Inner Harbor, south of town: Take Charles Street (one way) north to Fayette. Turn left on Fayette. From there, follow instructions above.

Parking: Free on-street parking is available on Amity, right outside of the Poe House. Please knock on the front door of the Poe House for admittance.

Note: Use caution when parking in an urban environment. Common sense dictates that you lock your car and keep any valuables out of sight.

At the moment, no Poe House events are currently known.