Here we have the home of the archetypal alcoholic southern writer being
demolished in order to train more of them high-priced trial lawyers. Why I do
believe that is is just pure vengeance and spite on the part NYU since Edgar
canceled out of a poetry reading at the school in 1845.  "We'll wait 150 years,
then we'll tear down that SOB's house."  Of course he didn't live at that
building for any length of time, he didn't live anywhere for any great length
of time.  After all, he was a writer who died when he was 40.

Has the Landmarks Commission designated other landmarks associated with other
literary figures of the southern ilk who passed through or passed out in NYC,
i.e. O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe,  Truman Capote - not yet dead long enuff., etc.?

The NPS owns and operates the Poe NHL in Philadelphia and it doesn't seem like
he lived there very long either.  He left a trail of museums since there are
also Poe museum properties in Baltimore, Richmond, and the Bronx.   Is the Poe
Cottage which the Bronx Historical Society operates a  NYC designated
landmark?

"You can get into a difficulty gratis, at any time, but it requires twenty-five
cents to get into a cab."
          -- Edgar Allan "Puttin' the Poe in Poetry" Poe

--

F. Mitchener Wilds, Senior Restoration Specialist
Restoration Branch
State Historic Preservation Office
919/733-6547
http://www.hpo.dcr.state.nc.us

***My opinions may not be those of my agency.***




Met History wrote:

> I think this building [about to be demolished by NYU] does not meet the test
> for an appropriate use of Landmark designation:
>
> 1.   The house is heavily altered from when Poe lived there (top two floors
> of facade intact (lower two floors pushed out with 1920's storefront).
> 2.  Poe did not build or materially alter the house.
> 3.  His occupancy was extremely brief.
>
> What do NYC-area Pinheads think?
>
> Sign me,  Monty Ahdo

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