Poe Park

Poe Cottage originally stood on a triangular plot where Kingsbridge Road turned east on the hill above what is now Fordham Road, with an apple orchard across the street on land that became Poe Park. The white frame farmhouse was built in 1812 as a laborer's dwelling, and Edgar Allan Poe, born in 1809, rented it for $100 a year in 1846, moving there with his 24-year-old wife, Virginia, in hopes that the Bronx country air might cure her tuberculosis. Although he had achieved literary success with "The Raven," written at his former home on West 84th Street, his years there were marked by poverty and loss until he left in 1849, after Virginia died in 1847. Poe, whose parents died before he was 3 and who was raised by Richmond exporter John Allan, had briefly attended the University of Virginia in 1825, later enlisted in the army, published poems, worked in New York City and Baltimore, gained prominence through his editorship of The Southern Literary Messenger and other journals, and became known by the 1830s for poetry, fiction, and criticism despite meager earnings. At the cottage he also wrote works including "The Bells," "Eureka," and "Annabel Lee," gardened, and talked with the Jesuits at nearby St. John's College, now Fordham University; after leaving, he traveled along the East Coast and died in Baltimore in 1849 after being found unconscious. An 1896 bill saved the cottage from demolition, moved it across the street, and created a public park around it as Fordham Village was losing its rural character through trolley lines and elevated railways that brought the area within commuting distance of Manhattan. The park opened in 1902, and in 1913 the cottage was moved again to its present site about 450 feet north of its original location. In 1909 the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences gave the city a bronze bust of Poe by Edmond T. Quinn for the poet's 100th birthday, but it was vandalized soon after installation and later placed inside the cottage. The circular bandstand, erected in 1925, made the park a community center for classical concerts, and in the 1940s and 1950s Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and other jazz musicians performed there. After the cottage fell into disrepair in the 1970s, the Bronx County Historical Society became its permanent custodian in 1975. The cottage is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a city landmark; its exterior restoration was completed in 2011, the surrounding park was updated with new play equipment and utilities in 2001, the Poe Park Visitor Center by Toshiko Mori opened in 2011, the surrounding landscape was upgraded and an accessible ramp added in 2022, and in 2023 the park's green space was expanded with new lawns and trees around the southern plaza along with a new ramp encircling the bandstand for ADA access.

New York, New York · United States