Edgar Allan Poe may have died penniless, but the Bronx County Historical Society is trying to raise $2 million on the strength of his name, according to the New York Daily News.
The not-for-profit group hopes to create an endowment for the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in Fordham to help with operating expenses.
"In order to do our very best, we need to do this," said Kathy McAuley, director of the Poe Cottage, where the author of mystery and macabre wrote some of his better known works. "There are so many things we are not able to do because of a small budget."
It costs about $300,000 a year to run the city-owned cottage at East Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The city pays about 40%, with the society footing the remainder.
The society operates through donations and some city and state grants. So far, nearly $20,000 has been raised for the endowment, McAuley said.
"It will let us expand our hours and our programming. And it will take some of the pressure off the historical society to pay the expenses," she said.
Read More:
