Boston Public LibraryBoston Pictorial Archive (Collection of Distinction)

Birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Carver St.

Item Information

Title:: Birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Carver St.
Date:: February 1931–February 1932
Format:: Photographs
Genre:: Gelatin silver prints
Location:: Boston Public Library
Arts Department
Collection (local):: Boston Pictorial Archive
Series:: Residences & Street Views > Residences Misc.
Subjects:: Houses
Birthplaces
Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849
Places:: Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Former site of the birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe, Boston, Massachusetts
Extent:: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver ; 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.
Permalink:: https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/9593vd53t
Terms of Use:: Rights status not evaluated.
This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License (CC BY-NC-ND).

Notes:: Title and date from item, from additional material accompanying item, or from information provided by the Boston Public Library.
Note accompanying item: The Boston birthplace of Edgar Allan Poe. The house in which Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston is still standing on Carver St., #62, not far from Boston Common, just below Stuart St. on the left side going south. It is a plain, brick house, three stories high with basement and attic, and the brass knocker on the door is probably the same one that was there when Poe was born in the house, Jan. 19, 1809. At that time, the name of that section of Carver St. was Haskins St., as the property from that point to Washington St. was owned by a man named Haskins. The house in which Poe was born was built by Henry Haviland in 1801. Several families, including Poe's parents, lived in the house in 1809. Early in 1924, the Boston Authors' Club put a memorial tablet to Edgar Allan Poe on a building at the corner of Fayette St. and Poe Sq., supposing that the house in which Poe was born stood at or near that spot. That "spot" is the same distance from the house in which Poe was born. The exact facts regarding Poe's birthplace were dug out of the archives of the city of Boston -- or rather the town of Boston -- by Walter K. Hawkins of the Bostonian Society and published in the Boston Globe. He found from the tax lists and from the Registry of Deeds that the Poes lived at 62 Carver St. when Edgar Allan Poe was born.
Identifier:: 08_02_003056