The Enchanted Garden at The Poe Museum, tucked behind the circa 1740 Old Stone House at 1914 E. Main St.
Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his macabre stories and poems that provide a glimpse into the dark recesses of disturbed minds and souls. While history has marked Poe as a brilliant yet troubled writer, one often overlooked aspect is his love of nature.
Poe’s passion is reflected in the Enchanted Garden surrounded by The Poe Museum, composed of four buildings including the Old Stone House, the oldest residential building in Richmond. Outlined by narrow brick pathways, everything nestled within the garden is an ode to Poe. During the spring and summer, hyacinths, stargazer lilies, daisies, heirloom roses and jasmine dance in the breeze. The garden includes centuries-old ivy taken from Poe’s mother’s grave at nearby St. John’s Church, boxwood trimmings from his former Richmond home, granite benches constructed from the city boarding house where he stayed, and bricks from his boyhood home and the Southern Literary Messenger building, where he worked as writer. A kaleidoscope of glass shards embedded atop the plot’s brick walls is a nod to an intriguing security mechanism mentioned in Poe’s story “William Wilson.”
In the back by a perfumed magnolia and shaded by an almost 100-year-old hackberry tree is the Poe Shrine, where visitors can commune with the author’s spirit. Scattered roses, coins and lipstick marks often accent the bust of Poe within.
Pluto, one of the resident cats at The Poe Museum
Edgar or Pluto, the museum’s resident cats, may be seen sauntering by. As museum curator Chris Semtner recalls, the two felines mysteriously appeared behind the shrine in November 2012 and have been official museum tour guides and greeters ever since.
Poe lived in and visited Richmond during periods of his childhood and young adulthood. He would regularly spend his days outdoors and was known for taking long strolls along the James River, particularly near the open farmland where Hollywood Cemetery now sits. Semtner says the young Poe was captivated by a family friend’s garden. “His foster father’s business partner had a fondness for gardening, and his house along Linden Row was filled with fragrant roses that could be smelled blocks away,” he says.
Poe frequently wrote about the beauty and peace of nature. His poem “To One in Paradise” directly inspired the museum’s garden. In spite of their haunting meaning, the stanzas remarkably contrast both the serenity and brutality of the environment. Other works, such as “To Helen” and “Dream-Land,” mention various flowers, including hyacinths and lilies. Poe continued to include aspects of nature throughout his works until his death in 1849.
It wasn’t until 1906 that members of Richmond’s Poe Foundation decided to honor him tangibly. They originally wanted to construct a Poe statue, but the state rejected the idea, thinking it silly that a sculpture be made of an artist. “It would have been Richmond’s first monument to a writer,” Semtner says. “It was such a new and radical idea at the time that the city wasn’t on board.”
In 1916, the foundation instead decided on a Poe library in the former Southern Literary Messenger building that would hold mementos from his life. These plans also met their end after the city decided to widen 15th Street, where the building was situated.
In 1920, the foundation conceived yet another way to pay tribute to Poe: Re-create one of his works in a way that people could interact with. It was then that The Poe Museum’s Enchanted Garden came to be at East Main Street’s historic Old Stone House. Architecture firm Baskervill & Lambert designed the outdoor oasis.
The bust of Poe inside the shrine in the back of the garden
The garden was planted shortly before the official museum structure opened in April 1922, Semtner says. At first, the entire plot was referred to as the Poe Shrine, and it wasn’t until the 1930s that the space was formally called The Poe Museum and the shrine was solely the brick loggia in the back of the garden.
Throughout the years, writers and artists such as Gertrude Stein, H.P. Lovecraft, Will Rogers and Vincent Price have stopped by to pay their respects. Even Salvador Dalí ventured through the site in 1940 and was so captivated that he wanted to construct his own.
Despite its relatively small size (it’s estimated to be 7,556 square feet), the garden requires a lot of work. A landscaper visits each week to tidy up, and in 2014 the Garden Club of Virginia took on the site as a restoration project. Volunteers help plant bulbs. To ensure that everything stays consistent both with Poe’s works and the garden’s original arrangement, the museum references historic postcards displaying the landscape in all its glory.
Today, the garden continues to welcome guests at museum events, including the Oct. 28 Unhappy Hour, which will pay homage to Poe with music from the Embalmers, beverages and other activities. January marks the Poe Birthday Bash, with activities all month, and events throughout the year include a variety of book signings, film screenings, poetry readings, weddings and receptions.
Those exploring this hidden city gem may feel a connection to a lonely author long gone as his spirit lives on within the quiet enclosure.
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