Town Crier Articles

That he lived in the city and considered it his hometown there was reason enough to do a deep dive into his background, idiosyncrasies (there were plenty of them) and the other elements that shaped him as one of the great American writers. What you will visit has taken 115 years and the overcoming of several roadblocks to assemble.

The effort began in 1906 when Poe collector and researcher James Howard Whitty and a group of literary enthusiasts met in Richmond to create Virginia’s first monument to a writer. The effort failed to generate enough financial support to continue, and 10 years later, the same group tried to save the Southern Literary Messenger building. That’s where Poe began as a journalist and editor. They failed again.

Whitty, however, salvaged the building materials, and found preservationists Archer and Annie Jones, who ultimately changed out the lumber, doorknobs, windows and hinges from the Old Stone House, Richmond’s oldest dwelling, for those Whitty brought with him. And the bricks were used to build a Poe Garden path modeled after his poem “To One in Paradise.”

By the end of this first decade, the Poe Memorial Association, commandeered the adjacent three buildings – one contains the original staircase from Poe’s home – and created the world’s most comprehensive repository of Poe artifacts, one visited by enthusiasts and scholars alike.

The museum is located at 1914 East Main Street. There is an adjacent parking lot (small), so that may represent a small problem, but there is a good amount of street parking. Tickets are ridiculously reasonable ($9 for adults, $7 for 60 and over, AAA members and youth ages 7-17.

The phone number is 804-648-5523. Like all things impacted by the pandemic, phone ahead of time to ascertain the hours for a particular day.

For more information, visit this website https://www.poemuseum.org/index.