Thursday, November 4, 2010

Long Neglected Edgar Allan Poe Cottage Looking For Maintenance Funds

In 1846, poet Edgar Allan Poe moved into this Fordham cottage, for which Bronx County Historical Society seeks a $2 million endowment.
Capital work is finally moving forward on the long neglected Edgar Allan Poe house, part of the Parks Department's Historic House Trust. According to the Daily News it costs about $300,000 a year to run the cottage located on East Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse. The city pays about 40%, and The Bronx County Historical Society pays the remainder. The Society is trying to raise a $2 million endowment. The cottage, which is on the National Register of Historic Places is closed during the six- to nine-month $ 1 million dollar renovation that began in August. (Photo: R Chu for the New York Daily News)

Bronx

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:

New York Daily News - November 3, 2010 - By Mike Jaccarino


2 comments:

  1. God knows, I want to see the house survive (I'd love even more to be able to buy the place myself,) but has anyone said why it takes that much money to keep the place running?

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  2. Who on earth is getting that money to keep a place like that? That much money should be able to rebuild it. That's every single year. It can't take that much money to keep it going. I think an inspection of the books are in order.

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