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POE COTTAGE, Poe Park
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This small cottage in the Bronx was the last home of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). It is set in a small park in an area now known as the Grand Concourse, and is the only house left from the old village of Fordham. Built in 1812, it is typical of workmen's cottages. I was brought up a bus ride away from this landmark, and the very crowded and commercially busy Fordham Road.
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Poe and his wife Virginia leased the house for $100. a year. Virginia was 13 years old when she married her first cousin in 1836. She was ill with tuberculosis when Poe decided that the country air of the Bronx would be healthy for her.
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Troubled times followed. They were penniless despite literary success. Virginia's mother came to live with them, and sadly had to forage in neighbors fields to feed themselves. Poe wrote many of his outstanding poems in Fordham, including, "The Bells", "Annabel Lee", and "Eureka". Virginia died in 1847, and Poe died two years later in Baltimore. You can refer to the previous post about Poe for more details.
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The cottage was saved from destruction in the 1890's by the Shakespeare Society, and moved to another not too distant location on Kingsbridge Road in 1913. Poe Cottage is one of four Poe house museums in America. The others are in Baltimore, Richmond, and Philadelphia. Items in the cottage include a cast iron stove, a desk, a rocking chair, straw bed and mirror. A narrow staircase leads to the couple's attic bedroom, the ceiling being barely six feet high.
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When I was a very young teenager, we, my girlfriends and I would go to Poe Park in the summertime, on Wednesday evenings, to hang out and maybe even dance to the live band that played on the bandstand. We flirted a lot, and probably giggled, and every once in a while some very brave boy would approach one of us. We danced without touching, asked "where are you from"? That was probably the extent of the conversation. Oh yes, what school? When the music ended, we took a bus home. No boys. This was really the Bronx. Yankee stadium was in the other direction. Go Yanks!!