Edgar Allan Poe Museum (Richmond, Virginia)

 The Poe Museum or the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, is a museum located in the Shockoe Bottom neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, United States, dedicated to American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Though Poe never lived in the building, it serves to commemorate his time living in Richmond. The museum holds one of the world's largest collections of original manuscripts, letters, first editions, memorabilia and personal belongings. The museum also provides an overview of early 19th century Richmond, where Poe lived and worked. The museum features the life and career of Poe by documenting his accomplishments with pictures, relics, and verse, and focusing on his many years in Richmond.

The Poe Museum is located at the "Old Stone House", built circa 1740 and cited as the oldest original residential building in Richmond. It was built by Jacob Ege, who immigrated from Germany to Philadelphia in 1738 and came to the James River Settlements and Col. Wm. Byrd's land grant (now known as Richmond) in the company of the family of his fiancée, Maria Dorothea Scheerer, whom he later married; the house was a "Home for the Bride." (One of Jacob's nephews, George Ege, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Berks County, Pennsylvania. Dendrochronology suggests that additional construction on the house occurred in 1754. Jacob Ege died in 

 1762. Samuel Ege, the son of Jacob and a Richmond flour inspector, owned the house in 1782 when it first appeared on a tax register.

In 1824, when the Marquis de Lafayette revisited Richmond, a volunteer company of young Richmonders, the Junior Morgan Riflemen, rode in procession along Lafayette's carriage. One of the riflemen, the then 15-year-old Edgar Allan Poe, stood as honor guard outside the Ege house as Lafayette visited its inhabitants. The house remained in possession of the Ege family until 1911.

Amidst Poe's centennial in 1909, a group of Richmond residents campaigned for the city to better recognize the writer. Citizens asked the city council to erect a statue of Poe on Monument Avenue but were turned down because he was deemed a disreputable character. The same group went on to found the Poe Museum. The New York Times called 1909 a banner year for acknowledgment of the importance of Poe, mentioning the Richmond museum. In 1911, Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) saved the house and opened it in 1922 as the Old Stone House.

Here is a local business that supports the community

 

Google Map-  

 

9020 Quioccasin Rd Suite C, Richmond, VA 23229, USA

 

 

Be sure to check out this attraction too!