HIDDEN GEM BRONX EDITION💎💎💎
Today we are reviewing Edgar Allan Poe cottage located on Kingsbridge and the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The cottage was the former home of the famous poet Edgar Allan Poe. A small wooden farmhouse built about 1812, the cottage once commanded unobstructed views over the rolling Bronx hills to the shores of Long Island.

 The Poe family moved to the cottage after living in Manhattan for a short time. His wife, Virgina become ill and Poe decided to move the family up to the country side of the Bronx. Poe, his wife and mother in law moved in around 1846.  The cottage is very small and simple. At the time, Poe only paid around $100 a year for rent to landlord John Valentine.

Poe’s wife, Virgina died after 3 years since moving in to the cottage. This inspired Poe’s more famous poem “Annabel Lee and Ulalume.” His short story, Landlor Cottage is  based on the cottage. Edgar Allan Poe died in 1849. In 1889, the cottage was sold to William Gill for $775. He will later become the first Poe Biographer. By the 1890s, Poe’s house was destined for demolition.  The New York Times, belied the house should be preserved and wrote : “The home of an author or a poet, whose memory has been marked for the honors that posterity alone confers, becomes a magnet for men and women the world over….The personal facts, the actual environment, the things he has touched and that have touched him are part of the great poet’s wonder-work and to distort them or to neglect them is to destroy them entirely.”

In 1895, the New York Shakespeare Society purchased the lot and cottage. In 1905, the city gave $100,000 for restoration.. The cottage used to stand on Kingsbridge and Valentines but has been moved to the other side of Poe Park in 1913. In 1922, the New York historic society also help with restoration and in 1962 the cottage became a NYC landmark. In 1966 it was recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. In the 1970s and 1980s, vandalism struck the cottage and was closed off. In 2007, a visitor center inspired by the Raven was built and the cottage has since been restored. 

If Edgar Allan Poe is your favorite poet, then we suggest it. This cottage is literally a time capsule in modern NYC. If you are a historical fanatic then we suggest it for you. It is pretty amazing to walk the same house one of the world’s greatest poet lived. Would you take a trip back in time ?
Go forth, explore and discover!