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When Edgar Allan Poe was found delirious and dying in a Baltimore gutter in 1849, the 40-year-old poet and writer of short fiction had already made his mark upon the literary world. His contribution to the realm of Gothic prose would set a gold standard within the genre for generations to come. 40 years earlier, however, across the street from Boston Common — a locale that Poe would deride in adulthood as a "frog pond" along with the rest of the city — young Edgar was born to David and Elizabeth Poe. They were local stage actors, whose brief union (David left in 1810 and Elizabeth died of consumption in 1811), produced the troubled little lad who would grow up to write classic works of macabre prose such as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Raven. Though the street grid has changed somewhat since then, Poe's birthplace has been twice commemorated, once in 1989 by a plaque which marks his birthplace at 62 Carver Street, and again in 2009 at the bicentennial of his birth in a place now known as Edgar Allan Poe Square that is around the corner and across the road from Boston Common.
Captured in the early 1930s, more than 120 years after Poe's birth, an archival photograph of the famous poet's birthplace at 62 Carver Street depicts the Georgian-Era townhouse that the author's parents rented at the time of his birth in 1809. The home, and eventually much of the street, as indicated by the adjacent parking lot, was virtually eradicated during the successive waves of urban renewal that swept through the city thorughout the 20th century. During the 1960s, the street grid surrounding Boston Common was largely realigned, with streets such as Carver either renamed or wiped away entirely, and no trace of the former Poe family home left standing today.
Located at the former intersection of Boylston and Carver Streets, the latter now an alley known today as Edgar Allan Poe Way, a commemorative plaque can be found. Nearby at the corner of Charles and Boylston sits a statue of Poe accompanied by a raven, a reference, of course, to his poem of the same name. Facing Boston Common, the jewel of the city that Poe viewed with disdain, the tiny public square has been known since 2009 as Edgar Allan Poe Square.
Moving around the corner to Edgar Allan Poe Square, the bronze-cast statue by Stefanie Rocknack, completed in 2014, depicts Poe in action. He carries an open briefcase in his hand, out of which has sprung a raven and a dropped book topped with a heart, a reference to the The Tell-Tale Heart, another of his best-known pieces. A fan-favourite of Poe enthusiasts and urban photographers alike, the statue has become a popular photo stop for anybody heading to Boston Common, where the famous Frog Pond is another must-see destination for true Poe lovers.
Boston's urban fabric owes much to it's history, and is home to numerous sites of national reverence including the Paul Revere House, Faneuil Hall, and the site of the Boston Tea Party. The recent addition of Edgar Allan Poe Square and its accompanying statue have boosted the presence of one of the most overlooked figures from among the city's rich literary legacy.
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