Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site

Admission: Free

Open: Only for a few hours, a few days/week.

It's been a while since I've had a chance to update this.

On the same day that Sarah, Jackson and I went to the Thaddeus Kioscuzko National Monument a couple of weeks ago, we also went a couple of miles away to the edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site, on 7th and Fairmount.

This is the house where Poe lived for several (~3-4) years with his dying wife and mother-in-law. Some of his most famous works were written here, incuding The Black Cat (I think that's what it is called - I'm no literature expert!), and The Raven.

Unforutunately, the Site is under renovation, so we're going to have to go back. Most of the rooms were stripped bare to the walls and original wood floors and there wasn't much to see in most of the house. It was kind of dissapointing, but I'm sure the renovations are necesary. They are expected to be done in mid January.

There were a few things to see. For example, there is a small theater with a short (~8min) movie about Poe and his time here. The rangers give you a laminated (temporary) guide to each rom in the house that tells you which rooms were which. The basement is cool, and pretty creepy, regardless of who lived here. Here is a video of Sarah trying to do her best "The Blair Witch Project" impression - I'm not sure she's actually seen it based on this.

The best part of the house was the reading room. They have 1 room that is completely restored with period furnitures, carpeting, etc. You can go in there, read from a complete colelction of Poe's works, or listen to them on cd. That part was actually quite nice.

Unfortunately, since most of the house was not completed, we can't mark this one off our list. We'll go back in the winter or spring and give an update. It was funt o go, anyway.

On an adjacent building there is this mural:

This mural is part of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, which has placed nearly 3,000 mural, small and enormous, on buildings, retaining walls, etc., all over the city. Most are fantastic. It's really a great program that the city has.

Conveniently, this building was right beside the EAP NM:

Now, we're not going to add National Historic Buildings to our list - that's too much. Frankly, while I love history, I care much less about buildings than I do nature, so we'll stick with National Parks and Monuments.