Text: Anonymous, “Poe's Home at Fordham,” New-York Tribune (New York, NY), vol. XLV, whole no. 14,093, June 21, 1885, p. 9, col. 5

[page 9, column 5:]

The house that was the home of Edgar A. Poe in Fordham is visited by many admirers of the poet. It remains to-day much as when he rented it in the spring of 1846, though the neighborhood is now a part of the city and is changing with every year. Two years ago the place was sold at public auction under foreclosure and it was bid in for $5,700; the unpaid taxes and accrued interest amounted to something more than that. From the railroad station the road winds up the Fordham hill to the cottage with the native rock as a pavement. The cottage seems no more than a little paint box, shingled on the sides as well as the roof and covered with vines on which the foliage is now appearing. It is only a few feet from the road, but in summer is almost obscured by the trees. Within, the rooms are more spacious than they appear from the road. A cherry tree planted by Poe, now vigorous and thrifty, shades a pleasant porch. There are two good sized rooms, a bedroom, and a kitchen on the lower floor. In the front room Virginia, Poe's invalid wife, lay through her sickness and died. On the upper floor there are three rooms, one of them quite large. The old-fashioned chimney passes through it, affording an old-time fire-place which in winter when filled with crackling wood would be cheerful place. It was a favorite room with the poet and here he wrote “Ulalume” and “Eureka.”

Poe moved to Fordham from Amity-st. Washington Square was then the centre of the fine residences of the city and his house in which he moved when the Raven had brought him a reputation, was only a short distance from the Square. He had been engaged on The Evening Mirror at a salary of $10 a week, and in a suit; against the paper for libel, after resigning his position, he secured a verdict and obtained several hundred dollars. With this money he secured the Fordham cottage at a rental of $100 a year, furnished it and removed there with his wife and her mother, Mrs. Clemm, who remained there until Poe's death in 1849. The grounds, comprising about two acres, are as interesting as the house, and have associations reaching back to Revolutionary times when this neighborhood was a part of the neutral ground and the field of Cooper's “Spy.” The lawn slopes into a grassy hollow. A massive ledge of blue-gray rock overlooks the valley at the height of a hundred feet and forms the eastern wall of the place. The site is said to have been occupied at one time by a British battery. Now, a tennis club composed of young men and women of Fordham meet on the lawn in summer. The rocky ledge commands a view of the Long Island hills in purple background against the horizon. In the growth of the city it is likely to become one of the choice sites for residences.

The place rents for $400 a year. For several years it has been occupied by Mrs. E. Dechert, the widow of on engineer who drew many of the plans of Centra [[Central]] Park and afterward most of the avenues and drives of Fordham. A few of those who knew Poe and his family are still living in the neighborhood. One of these was his nearest neighbor, Mrs. Reuben Cromwell, then a young girl. She said recently that the first time she saw Poe he was up in a cherry tree picking the fruit and his wife stood beneath the tree, He was a nice-looking young man,” continued Mrs. Cromwell, and sociable. His wife had come out here to get the good air, he said, and to dig in the ground and get well. But she was too thin and weak to dig. She soon became ill and never came out until she was buried. Her mother they called ‘Muddie’ and Mr. Poe they always called Eddie. They were awful poor, poorer than I ever want to be.”

Mrs. Cromwell describes going over to the house the morning that she heard of Poe's death. Mrs. Clemm was packing his things, having received a letter from him the day before in which he wrote of his intended marriage to a Baltimore lady, and said that he would come on for her. She was overcome when informed of his death and was sure that he would not have died had she been there to “nurse him in his bad spell.” The neighbors raised money to enable her to go to Baltimore. Poe had not paid any rent for several months and Mrs. Clemm afterward returned and sold their few effects. Among these Mrs. Cromwell obtained the family Bible, a rocking chair and a clock, which she still retained as relics of her distinguished but unfortunate neighbor.