The 1830s Baltimore rowhouse where Poe lived with the Clemm family from 1833-1835, opened as a writer's house museum in 1949 and a designated National Historic Landmark.
203 N Amity Street, Baltimore, MD 21223
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Admission charged; check Poe Baltimore website for current rates and hours.
Access
Limited Access
Small two-story rowhouse with narrow staircases; first floor limited access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1830 · National Historic Landmark (1972) · ALA Literary Landmark (2020) · Early American writer's house museum (opened 1949)
The Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum at 203 North Amity Street is a small two-story brick rowhouse built around 1830 in what is today West Baltimore. The home belongs to the broader story of the writer Edgar Allan Poe's Baltimore years, when at the beginning of 1833 Maria Clemm moved her household into the modest residence. The household at that point included Maria, her daughter Virginia Clemm (later Poe's wife), Maria's mother Elizabeth Cairnes Poe, the nephew Edgar Allan Poe, and possibly Maria's son Henry. Poe lived in the house from approximately 1833 to 1835, and he is estimated to have written roughly a dozen poems and stories during his Amity Street residence, including some that helped launch his career as a magazinist.
After Poe's death in 1849 and Maria Clemm's eventual departure, the building passed through ordinary residential use for nearly a century. By the 1930s, the surrounding neighborhood had changed substantially, and threats of demolition led to a long preservation campaign. The City of Baltimore acquired the property and opened it as a writer's house museum in 1949, an early example of an American author museum preserved primarily for its biographical association.
The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972. In October 2012 it closed when the City of Baltimore withdrew funding, but the nonprofit Poe Baltimore reopened the museum on October 5, 2013 and has since operated the site. The American Library Association recognized the house as a Literary Landmark in 2020.
The Poe House is intentionally preserved in a sparse state, with most of the original Clemm-Poe furnishings long lost. Interpretation focuses on the architecture, the cramped living conditions, and the literary output Poe produced during this formative period. The museum is typically open Thursday through Sunday and is governed by Poe Baltimore in conjunction with the city.
Sources
Although Poe Baltimore does not formally promote the museum as a haunted attraction, the Amity Street house has accumulated a body of paranormal folklore that appears in regional ghost-tour material and visitor accounts. According to Tour Baltimore Ghosts and other paranormal-tourism sources, the most frequently described figure is a 'grey lady' — a heavyset woman in grey clothing of roughly the period who is sometimes interpreted by the lore as Virginia Clemm, even though Virginia died in 1847 in Fordham, New York, not in Baltimore.
A second figure described in the same body of folklore is a gaunt, dark-clothed man matching nineteenth-century descriptions of Poe himself, reported standing in dim corners or near the upstairs garret bedroom that Poe is believed to have used. Other reports collected by ghost-tour operators and paranormal-guide sites include phantom taps on the shoulder, unexplained cold spots, and disembodied whispers.
A female presence is sometimes specifically located in the second-floor bedroom historically associated with Virginia Clemm. Tour narratives describe a gentle, non-threatening energy there in contrast to other accounts that describe the overall house as oppressive. The Poe House appears regularly on national 'most haunted' lists for Baltimore and has been featured on paranormal-investigation podcasts, but the formal museum interpretation centers on Poe's life and literary output rather than the ghost narratives.
Notable Entities
Self-guided exploration of the cramped two-story rowhouse where Edgar Allan Poe lived with his aunt Maria Clemm, cousin Virginia, grandmother Elizabeth, and possibly his cousin Henry from roughly 1833-1835. The house is preserved largely empty to focus attention on the architecture, the cramped quarters, and the literary context. Interpretive panels and rotating exhibits cover Poe's biography and his Baltimore period.
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