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Aug 7, 2011, 2:28:57 PM8/7/11
to George_Lippard_Literary_Society, billc...@netscape.net
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/arts/edgar-allan-poe-house-in-baltimore-faces-closing.html?hp
ugust 7, 2011
Fiscal Woe Haunting Baltimore Poe House
By KATE TAYLOR
BALTIMORE — Even now, 162 years after his death here, Edgar Allan Poe
still seems to be suffering from the kind of bad luck that haunted his
life.
For a second year city leaders have chosen not to subsidize a museum
in the tiny house where the impoverished Poe lived from around 1833 to
1835, a decision that means it may have to close soon.
Since the city cut off its $85,000 in annual support last year, the
house has been operating on reserve funds, which are expected to run
out as early as next summer. In the coming months consultants hired by
the city will try to come up with a business plan to make the Edgar
Allan Poe House financially self-sufficient, possibly by updating its
exhibits to draw more visitors.
But the museum sits amid a housing project, far off this city's
tourist beaten path, and attracts only 5,000 visitors a year.
"It would be ironic, after all these years of aggressively and
actively promoting the Poe House and the Poe grave, to have it close,"
said Jeff Jerome, the house's curator for more than 30 years.
He said that to switch suddenly to a self-supporting model was
impractical, given that the house generates only a small amount of
revenue from admissions, special events and the sale of books and T-
shirts.
The director of Baltimore's planning department, Thomas J. Stosur,
said that with the city facing a large budget gap last year, the
subsidy cut was unavoidable. "Everybody was under the gun to focus
more on core services," he said in a telephone interview.
The city has continued to provide a $55,500 grant to the Babe Ruth
Birthplace Museum, which is more centrally located and draws six times
as many visitors a year as the Poe House.
For decades Baltimore has prized its association with Poe, a master of
the macabre who inspired the name for the city's National Football
League team, the Ravens.
It is here where Poe nurtured his fledgling career as a writer and
where he died, in 1849 at the age 40, after he was found in a tavern
delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young
wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.
Poe lived with Virginia, who was his cousin, in a house at 203 North
Amity Street. They married in 1836, when she was 13 and Poe was 27.
They shared the house with his aunt and Virginia's mother, Maria
Clemm; his grandmother, Elizabeth Cairnes Poe; and Virginia's brother,
Henry. When Poe moved in, he had just been kicked out of the United
States Military Academy at West Point. He had published three books of
poetry by then but received little recognition or payment for his
writing.
But while living with the Clemms, who had little money, Poe turned his
attention to short stories and had his first taste of literary
success, winning $50 in a contest sponsored by The Baltimore Saturday
Visiter for a story about a sailor who dies after his ship is
destroyed by a storm and finds himself cast onto a vessel seemingly
manned by ghosts. Poe was most likely living in the small third-floor
bedroom when he wrote his first true horror story, "Berenice," about a
man engaged to his sickly cousin who develops a morbid obsession with
her teeth. After she dies — or appears to, since later it is implied
that she was buried alive — he digs up her body and pulls them out.
Poe said that he based the story, which scandalized readers, on a
rumor then circulating in Baltimore that graves were being robbed to
supply dentists with teeth.
The exhibits in Poe House are modest: some china and glassware from
the household of Poe's foster father, in Richmond; a telescope
reputedly used by Poe; locks of Poe's and Virginia's hair; and a
fragment of his coffin, though some of the items are only occasionally
on display, for conservation reasons.
The Poe House, which is owned by the Baltimore City Housing Authority,
is designated a landmark, so it's in no danger of being torn down,
even if it closes as a museum. It is about a mile from Poe's grave in
the Westminster Burying Ground, where for decades a mysterious visitor
left a half-filled bottle of cognac and three roses every year on his
birthday, Jan. 19.
Several cities boast Poe-related sites. Richmond, Va., where he spent
much of his childhood, has an Edgar Allan Poe Museum. In Philadelphiaa
house where Poe lived with Maria and Virginia from 1843 to 1844 is
owned and operated by the National Park Service. Poe Cottage, in the
Bronx, where Poe spent the last three years of his life, is owned by
New York City but operated by the Bronx Historical Society. (It is
currently closed while undergoing a major restoration, paid for
largely by the city.)
Jeffrey A. Savoye, the secretary and treasurer of the Edgar Allan Poe
Society of Baltimore, said it would be hard for the house here to be
self-supporting because of its location, and because it does not have
space that it can rent out for events.
"I really see only two probable avenues," he said. "One is the city
comes to its senses and realizes they're not saving a lot of money, so
they might as well keep running it. And the other is some angel with a
lot of money steps forward and can cover the costs."
Jeffrey L. Nichols, the executive director of the Mark Twain House and
Museum in Hartford, which has had its own financial setbacks, said
that the house might get a boost from the forthcoming release of a
movie about Poe, titled "The Raven" that stars John Cusack. "Those
things help," he said, noting that last year's publication of Twain's
unexpurgated autobiography brought a record number of visitors to his
house.
Baltimore artists have also rallied to raise money for the Poe House.
A street artist, who goes by the name Gaia, made a limited-edition
print of a raven, which is being sold by a local gallery to benefit
the house. With about a quarter of the 100 prints sold so far, sales
have raised about $10,000.
Mr. Jerome said it would be especially unfortunate for the house to
close, given that it was barely saved from demolition 70 years ago,
when the housing project was being built. At the time the Poe society
conducted research to prove that Poe lived in the house, and
ultimately persuaded the housing authority to spare it.
Because of who Poe was, and what he wrote about, his lingering
presence seems stronger in this house than, say, somewhere where
George Washington once slept. Writers like Stephen King come to visit.
Visitors try to spook one another. People often ask whether the house
is haunted.
The official answer is a soft no. But the final verdict may fall to
Vincent Price, the actor, who Mr. Jerome said visited the house some
years ago and paid it perhaps its highest compliment.
"This house," Mr. Price offered, "gives me the creeps."
ugust 7, 2011
Fiscal Woe Haunting Baltimore Poe House
By KATE TAYLOR
BALTIMORE — Even now, 162 years after his death here, Edgar Allan Poe
still seems to be suffering from the kind of bad luck that haunted his
life.
For a second year city leaders have chosen not to subsidize a museum
in the tiny house where the impoverished Poe lived from around 1833 to
1835, a decision that means it may have to close soon.
Since the city cut off its $85,000 in annual support last year, the
house has been operating on reserve funds, which are expected to run
out as early as next summer. In the coming months consultants hired by
the city will try to come up with a business plan to make the Edgar
Allan Poe House financially self-sufficient, possibly by updating its
exhibits to draw more visitors.
But the museum sits amid a housing project, far off this city's
tourist beaten path, and attracts only 5,000 visitors a year.
"It would be ironic, after all these years of aggressively and
actively promoting the Poe House and the Poe grave, to have it close,"
said Jeff Jerome, the house's curator for more than 30 years.
He said that to switch suddenly to a self-supporting model was
impractical, given that the house generates only a small amount of
revenue from admissions, special events and the sale of books and T-
shirts.
The director of Baltimore's planning department, Thomas J. Stosur,
said that with the city facing a large budget gap last year, the
subsidy cut was unavoidable. "Everybody was under the gun to focus
more on core services," he said in a telephone interview.
The city has continued to provide a $55,500 grant to the Babe Ruth
Birthplace Museum, which is more centrally located and draws six times
as many visitors a year as the Poe House.
For decades Baltimore has prized its association with Poe, a master of
the macabre who inspired the name for the city's National Football
League team, the Ravens.
It is here where Poe nurtured his fledgling career as a writer and
where he died, in 1849 at the age 40, after he was found in a tavern
delirious and in distress, two years after the death of his young
wife, Virginia, from tuberculosis.
Poe lived with Virginia, who was his cousin, in a house at 203 North
Amity Street. They married in 1836, when she was 13 and Poe was 27.
They shared the house with his aunt and Virginia's mother, Maria
Clemm; his grandmother, Elizabeth Cairnes Poe; and Virginia's brother,
Henry. When Poe moved in, he had just been kicked out of the United
States Military Academy at West Point. He had published three books of
poetry by then but received little recognition or payment for his
writing.
But while living with the Clemms, who had little money, Poe turned his
attention to short stories and had his first taste of literary
success, winning $50 in a contest sponsored by The Baltimore Saturday
Visiter for a story about a sailor who dies after his ship is
destroyed by a storm and finds himself cast onto a vessel seemingly
manned by ghosts. Poe was most likely living in the small third-floor
bedroom when he wrote his first true horror story, "Berenice," about a
man engaged to his sickly cousin who develops a morbid obsession with
her teeth. After she dies — or appears to, since later it is implied
that she was buried alive — he digs up her body and pulls them out.
Poe said that he based the story, which scandalized readers, on a
rumor then circulating in Baltimore that graves were being robbed to
supply dentists with teeth.
The exhibits in Poe House are modest: some china and glassware from
the household of Poe's foster father, in Richmond; a telescope
reputedly used by Poe; locks of Poe's and Virginia's hair; and a
fragment of his coffin, though some of the items are only occasionally
on display, for conservation reasons.
The Poe House, which is owned by the Baltimore City Housing Authority,
is designated a landmark, so it's in no danger of being torn down,
even if it closes as a museum. It is about a mile from Poe's grave in
the Westminster Burying Ground, where for decades a mysterious visitor
left a half-filled bottle of cognac and three roses every year on his
birthday, Jan. 19.
Several cities boast Poe-related sites. Richmond, Va., where he spent
much of his childhood, has an Edgar Allan Poe Museum. In Philadelphiaa
house where Poe lived with Maria and Virginia from 1843 to 1844 is
owned and operated by the National Park Service. Poe Cottage, in the
Bronx, where Poe spent the last three years of his life, is owned by
New York City but operated by the Bronx Historical Society. (It is
currently closed while undergoing a major restoration, paid for
largely by the city.)
Jeffrey A. Savoye, the secretary and treasurer of the Edgar Allan Poe
Society of Baltimore, said it would be hard for the house here to be
self-supporting because of its location, and because it does not have
space that it can rent out for events.
"I really see only two probable avenues," he said. "One is the city
comes to its senses and realizes they're not saving a lot of money, so
they might as well keep running it. And the other is some angel with a
lot of money steps forward and can cover the costs."
Jeffrey L. Nichols, the executive director of the Mark Twain House and
Museum in Hartford, which has had its own financial setbacks, said
that the house might get a boost from the forthcoming release of a
movie about Poe, titled "The Raven" that stars John Cusack. "Those
things help," he said, noting that last year's publication of Twain's
unexpurgated autobiography brought a record number of visitors to his
house.
Baltimore artists have also rallied to raise money for the Poe House.
A street artist, who goes by the name Gaia, made a limited-edition
print of a raven, which is being sold by a local gallery to benefit
the house. With about a quarter of the 100 prints sold so far, sales
have raised about $10,000.
Mr. Jerome said it would be especially unfortunate for the house to
close, given that it was barely saved from demolition 70 years ago,
when the housing project was being built. At the time the Poe society
conducted research to prove that Poe lived in the house, and
ultimately persuaded the housing authority to spare it.
Because of who Poe was, and what he wrote about, his lingering
presence seems stronger in this house than, say, somewhere where
George Washington once slept. Writers like Stephen King come to visit.
Visitors try to spook one another. People often ask whether the house
is haunted.
The official answer is a soft no. But the final verdict may fall to
Vincent Price, the actor, who Mr. Jerome said visited the house some
years ago and paid it perhaps its highest compliment.
"This house," Mr. Price offered, "gives me the creeps."
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