For several years, Edgar Allan Poe shared this modest home with his invalid grandmother (Elizabeth Cairnes), his first cousins (Virginia and Henry Celmm), and his aunt (Maria Clemm) who was desperately poor but still willing to provide a home for her temperamental young nephew. Following the appearance of cholera in Baltimore during the summer of 1832, the family moved from the relatively congested area of Fell's Point to this little duplex, surrounded then by countryside and pastureland. At that time the address was number 3 Amity Street.
It was here that Poe decided to turn his hand from writing poetry to fiction. A number of early tales were presumably written in this house, including the gruesome "Berenice." According to family tradition, a brief marriage ceremony was performed in Baltimore between Poe and Virginia on September 21, 1835, where shortly thereafter Poe left for Richmond, Virginia.
His death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849 remains a compelling mystery with no firm cause of death. His burial place, an internationally recognized literary shrine, is located at the Westminster Burying Grounds in Baltimore at the corner of Fayette and Greene streets.
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