We may find it difficult to envision Edgar Allan Poe as described by Oscar Penn Fitzgerald, a Methodist bishop, author and editor, just weeks before the Gothic poet’s death.
The last known photograph of Edgar Allan Poe was taken in September 1849 by William Abbott Pratt in Richmond.
In his memoir, Fitzgerald recounts a “very vivid impression of [Poe] as he was the last time I saw him, on a warm day in 1849,” at the offices of the Richmond Weekly Examiner newspaper on the north side of Main Street near 11th Street. “Clad in a spotless white linen suit, with a black velvet vest and a Panama hat, he was a man who would be notable in any company,” Fitzgerald wrote.
Poe also carried a walking stick inscribed with his last name upon the silver handle. He left it behind at the 17th and Broad residence of friend and physician John Carter on Sept. 26, 1849. During their hourlong visit, as Carter later recalled, Poe idly played “with a handsome Malacca sword-cane,” a gift to Carter from another friend. Poe abruptly left to enjoy supper at the nearby Sadler’s restaurant (now a parking lot across from Main Street Station), leaving behind his walking stick and taking the sword-cane. Carter figured Poe would eventually return to his home to reverse the exchange, but instead at 4 a.m., Poe boarded a boat to Baltimore for what became his final destination.
Today, the walking stick is in the collection of The Poe Museum, which is celebrating Poe’s “Sweet 216th” birthday from 6 to 10 p.m. on Jan. 18.
Three weeks before Poe absconded with Carter’s sword-cane, he relented to the requests for a daguerreotype portrait from another Richmond eccentric, William Abbott Pratt.
The civil engineer, landscape designer, architect and self-described “daugerrean artist” is remembered locally for the residence he built in 1854 atop Gamble’s Hill called Pratt’s Castle. Also known as “Pratt’s Folly,” the turreted and crenellated structure sheathed in rolled sheet iron, with its fanciful interior of stained glass and hidden rooms, was one of the city’s most photographed buildings, until its 1958 demolition to make way for the headquarters of the Ethyl Corporation (now a subsidiary of NewMarket Corporation).
Two small Pratt images are included in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “A Long Arc: Photography and the American South Since 1845,” closing Jan. 26. One is a remarkable circa-1854 image from the window of Pratt’s studio on the south side of Main Street near 11th Street, which is where Poe agreed to sit for what would be the last known images taken of him.
Poe left his walking stick, engraved with his name on its silver tip, at the 17th and Broad home of John Carter.
The writer, hastening down Main, passed by Pratt’s studio, where the owner stood in the doorway. He importuned Poe to sit for the promised portrait. Poe protested that he was not suitably dressed but consented for a couple of likely reasons: The technical aspects of photography fascinated him, and he also sensed the glimmerings of fame — the picture could be used as an “About the Author” portrait and as a keepsake.
It was a September morning, and Richmond was wrapped in stuffy, heat-charged humidity. Poe, clad in black, had climbed steep stairs to a gallery lit by a skylight and with little relief from the heat. Pratt used a brace to pose him and prevent movement of his head during the 15-minute process.
Poe left town without retrieving the Pratt pictures. Pratt displayed one of them in his shop window until leaving the business in 1856. Today, The Poe Museum displays an early copy of one. A handkerchief bulges under Poe’s unbuttoned vest, perhaps attesting to wiping sweat and shoving hair from his broad brow.
Elmira Royster Shelton, Poe’s childhood sweetheart with whom he sought to rekindle romance and potentially marry, had the presence of mind to allow a tintype copy to be made. The original was damaged during an 1894 cleaning attempt and then went missing. The copy was also thought to be lost until collector and Poe Museum friend Susan Jaffe Tane brought the tintype into the museum.
In celebrating Poe’s 216th birthday, the museum also will be celebrating Richmond, where the poet spent an aggregate of almost half his 40 years.
“Richmond is my home,” Poe wrote in 1839 to his second cousin George W. Poe Jr., “and a letter to that City will always reach me, in whatever part of the world I maybe.”
One can chart the author’s development through city landmarks, some of which are still extant. His actress mother, Eliza, is buried at St. John’s Church. A garden where as a youngster he played with his friend Charles Ellis became the Linden Row Inn’s tranquil courtyard at 100 E. Franklin St. He dwelt as a ward of John and Frances Valentine Allan at Moldavia, a mansion on the southeast corner of Main and Fifth streets, demolished in 1890. Shelton’s home, where she lived when Poe met her again later in life, still stands at 2407 E. Grace St.
Poe briefly lived with his foster parents, John and Frances Allan, at their Moldavia mansion in Richmond.
He never lived at The Poe Museum’s Old Stone House, but he marched in an honor guard during the 1824 visit there by the Marquis de Lafayette.
The Mackenzie family took in his older sister, Rosalie, at their Duncan Lodge, which stood between what is now Lodge Street and Allen Avenue. Today, the site is occupied by a former Sears department store that houses operations for flavorings and condiments manufacturer Sauer’s.
Poe became a professional writer at the Southern Literary Messenger, which stood on the southeast corner of 15th and Main streets. Following its razing, remnants went into making the garden walls and pergola at The Poe Museum.
On Sept. 25, 1849, Poe went to a reception at Talavera, the country villa of grocer Thomas Talley. He recited “The Raven” for an enthralled audience. The listeners included Susan Archer Talley, a Poe fangirl, who later observed that as Poe left the house, a shooting star streaked overhead. The residence has twice moved from its original site near Broad Street but still stands at 2315 W. Grace St.
You’re likely to get a sense of Poe’s presence at Talavera during the museum’s “Sweet 216th” event. And this spring, the museum is unveiling a reorganization of the exhibition spaces with a reunion of sorts for the furnishings, art and objects of the Poe, Allan and Mackenzie families that previously haven’t been on view. Thus, Edgar’s legacy continues, evermore.
