Edgar Allan Poe Cottage: His Last Home in the Bronx

Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life (1846 to 1849) in a small house in the Bronx, known as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage.

The grounds around the house are now a park, Poe Park, and the writer's last home sits in its northern section.

How to visit Edgar Allan Poe's house in the Bronx

Before you head inside, take a look around. The park sits right on the Grand Concourse,  a grand avenue that runs through several Bronx neighborhoods, designed in the late 19th century by a French immigrant named Louis Aloys Risse.

That explains the striking art deco style of its most distinctive apartment buildings.

Another thing worth knowing about the area around Poe's house: it's just a few blocks from the beautiful Fordham University Church, known as St. John's College in Poe's day, whose bells inspired his poem The Bells:

Hear the sledges with the bells
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!

Those old bells no longer ring, but they're on display in the university's Fordham Walsh Library. If you introduce yourself as a Poe fan, they'll almost certainly let you in 😉

Once inside the house you'll find Edgar Allan Poe's personal belongings, including his rocking chair, his desk, a mirror and the bed where Virginia Poe spent her final days.

Take the guided tour and you'll hear about the last years of this major American writer's life. On the second floor you can watch a documentary.

History of the cottage

When it was built in 1812, the house stood in the little village of Fordham, with sweeping views of the Bronx hills and the shores of Long Island.

Poe moved to this quiet property in 1846 for two reasons: to focus on his work and, above all, to care for his beloved wife Virginia Clemm, who was in the advanced stages of tuberculosis.

Back then, the main treatment for tuberculosis was simply breathing clean air.

Sadly, the fresh air didn't do much good. Virginia died in 1847 in the small bed you'll see on the tour. Her death left Poe sunk in a deep melancholy that poured into the texts he wrote in this Bronx cottage.

Chief among them is his last poem, Annabel Lee, in which he describes his love for a beautiful woman who died young, a love so intense it made the angels jealous, and he accuses them of stealing her away.

Poe left this house in 1849 bound for Philadelphia, a trip he never completed (did you know you can get to Philadelphia from New York in 2 hours?). He would be found dead halfway there, in a gutter on a Baltimore street.

According to historians, there was nothing supernatural about his death. The most widely accepted theory is that he was murdered because he was an inconvenient intellectual for many political figures of his time.

Poe is remembered as a gothic poet, but his real passion was journalism. Did you know that?

Other Bronx attractions

Since you'll already be in the Bronx, here's a rundown of the other Bronx sights worth your time.

One heads-up: Poe Cottage is very close to the Bronx Museum of the Arts, also on the Grand Concourse. It's free, and you'll learn a bit about New York street art.

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Getting there:
Subway B, D. Kingsbridge Road station
Address:
2640 Grand Concourse at East Kingsbridge Road, Bronx
Prices:
Adults US$5 / Students, children and 65+ US$ 3
Hours:
Thursday and Friday 10 am to 3 pm
Saturday 10 am to 4 pm
Sunday 1 pm to 5 pm

Before you go, I'd check the hours on the official site.