Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum

If These Walls Could Talk

The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum is on a quiet street corner west of downtown. Poe lived here for several years, from 1832 or 1833 until his marriage in 1835. He shared the house with his future wife and mother-in-law, and he was living here when he first started to experience some success as a writer. The house is a tiny two-story brick structure on Amity Street. It’s nearly 200 years old and has many of the quirks of an old house; the floorboards creak, the steam pipes bang and groan in the winter, and the windows are leaky.

Currently, the downstairs and upstairs are devoted to exhibiting artifacts of Poe’s life. The basement is the main office of the Dupin Society; meetings are often held there after hours. It’s not big enough to comfortably seat every member, so sometimes meetings of the entire group are held at Mackey’s home.

Paul Mackey if the current Director of the Dupin Society and curator of the museum (page 384).