Poe in the Bronx

There is a cottage in the Bronx at the intersection of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road where Edgar Allan Poe lived with his wife, Virginia Clemm, before she died and where he lived out his last years.  I only know about this place from my NYPD friend who is a native to this city.

Jeff, Dan and I met up there on Saturday and listened to a fascinating tour of Poe's life in NYC.  He was awfully poor and barely made any money from his writings.  The cottage has two items that actually belonged to Poe, the rest of the furnishings are from that time.

Poe rented the cottage for $100 a year.  To understand how poor he was, he was only paid $8 for The Raven.  Poe lived here with his wife (who was also his cousin) and his mother-in-law (who was also his dad's sister).

A bust of the man.

A typical kitchen during the 1840s.

The rocking chair is one of the items Poe owned.  A family in the neighborhood bought it in 1849 when Poe died and donated it to the cottage when it was made a historic landmark house museum.

And the original item is the rope bed that his wife died in.  A rope bed is a wooden frame within which is stretched a lattice of ropes which support the mattress.