Any of you new yawkas up on this?

>Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 11:43:02 EDT
>Subject: [forum-l] Edgar Allan Poe house
>To: [log in to unmask]
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>Dear Friends,
>
>A friend requested that I post this information for him.  He is trying to
>save a significant building in New York.  He is not a preservationist by
>training/experience and would be extremely grateful for help or advice.  Do
>not reply to me but instead to Michael Deas at [log in to unmask]  Thank
>you very much for your help.
>
>Return-path: [log in to unmask]
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Full-name: Michaeldeas
>Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 04:16:49 EDT
>Subject: Re: Poe house
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>IMPENDING DEMOLITION OF THE EDGAR ALLAN POE HOUSE IN NEW YORK CITY
>
>New York University has announced its intention to demolish the last
>remaining Manhattan residence of Edgar Allan Poe, to make way for a ten-story
>addition to its law school.  The building, a simple Greek Revival brick row
>house built in 1836, stands at 85 West Third Street, in the heart of New
>York's Greenwich Village.  The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission has
>rejected several applications to grant the building landmark protection and
>has flatly refused to hold a public hearing on the matter.  Without the
>assistance of the preservation community, this house--along with several
>architecturally significant neighbors--will fall to the wrecker's ball.
>
>Poe lived in this building from late 1845 through early 1846, a period widely
>acknowledged by Poe scholars as the most critical of his life.  Publication
>of "The Raven" several months earlier had made him a celebrity of
>international renown, and it was while living at West Third (then called
>Amity Street) that he began work on his classic tale, "The Cask of
>Amontillado."  While here Poe also revised and edited many of his extant
>poems for publication in the first substantial anthology of his verse, titled
>THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845).  During this
>period Poe also worked on at least two other short stories and numerous
>critical pieces; he acquired sole ownership of the BROADWAY JOURNAL, a weekly
>literary magazine comparable to today's NEW YORKER, and became one of the
>first editors to publish the work of an unknown young writer named Walt
>Whitman.  On a more poignant note, Poe moved to 85 West Third accompanied by
>his mother-in-law and his wife, who by this time was suffering from
>tuberculosis. It is believed that by moving to this house, with its small
>backyard (still extant) and the comparatively fresh air of nearby Washington
>Square, Poe hoped to improve his dying wife's health.
>
>Although much of the Greenwich Village enjoys landmark status, the Poe House
>and the block on which it stands does not.  In fact, along with the Poe
>House, NYU has announced it will also demolish an entire row of Greek Revival
>buildings standing a few yards away on Thompson Street. These are the
>so-called Judson Church Houses, built at approximately the same time as the
>Poe House and later renovated by McKim, Mead & White as part of their design
>for Judson Church, now standing on the south side of Washington Square.
>
>The Poe House is sturdy, unassuming four-story brick residence currently used
>for office space by the NYU law school.  Its doorstoop was removed and its
>lower facade altered sometime in the early 20th century, but otherwise the
>building compares remarkably well with an early drawing showing the original
>exterior.
>
>If any preservationists or historians can help in saving this historic
>building, please contact Michael Deas at (504) 524-3957, or by e-mail at
>[log in to unmask]  The assistance of the preservation community is urgently
>needed to save this, the last surviving vestige of Edgar Allan Poe's life in
>Manhattan.
>