Fall 2001

Painting the Poe
Thanks to generous gifts by many friends of the museum the Poe looks better than ever. Wear and tear had left the museum looking a little worn. Now we are in the middle of a much needed renovation that will have the museum spruced up just in time for the holidays. Already new paint is being applied to exterior trim of all of our buildings. Also bathrooms have been renovated and brought up to code for handicap access. Our kitchen has been redone from top to bottom so that we can better manage special events, especially weddings. Additionally repairs have been made to the electrical system, the heating and cooling system, and the alarm system.

Work began in early November on the brick walkways in the garden. Years of wear have left them uneven and difficult to navigate for anyone in a wheelchair. Labor for this project has been donated by the students and administration of Richmond Technical High School. The students, led and instructed by their teacher Mr. Brad Barrows, will repair the sidewalks as well as build ramps necessary to ensure handicap access to all areas of the museum.

And for the first time in museum history major signage can be seen from all directions leading to the museum. A seven foot sign has been erected on the corner of Main and 20th Streets and is visible to all who approach the museum from either Main or 20th.

Major funding for the project has been received from the Mary Morton Parsons Foundation, the Morgan Foundation, the Roller-Bottimore Foundation, Mrs. Gina Rawles, the Gwathmey Trust, the Titmus Foundation, the Pauley Foundation, and Circuit City.

Poe Museum Gets Bricks
The Poe Museum is now the recipient of approximately 700 bricks from Edgar Allan Poe’s last New York city residence at what was then 85 Amity Street in Greenwich Village. The bricks were given to the museum by New York University which in a compromise with preservationists agreed to rebuild the facade, and use some interior elements, at a new location.

Several suggestions have been made as to possible uses of the bricks. One of the best suggestions is to clean a large portion of the bricks and either sell them or use them for fund raising purposes. Volunteers will be needed to expedite this process. If anyone would like to help please call the museum.

Bridging the Gap
With so few antebellum buildings left standing in Richmond, it can be difficult to visualize the city as it looked in Poe’s day. Poe’s best-known childhood home, the elegant 5th and Main mansion known as “Moldavia,” was destroyed in the 1890s, and the building in Shockoe Bottom that housed his first employer, the Southern Literary Messenger, became a victim of modernization in the first part of the 20th century. These two buildings are shown on the model of early 19th century, at the Poe Museum, but until this year, museum visitors had no clear view of the structures’ appearances.

Two recent gifts from board members Marika and Mrs. James Rawles, now bring Poe’s past closer to the imagination of his fans. This past spring, the Rawleses presented the museum with two 1999 works by local painter James Whiting, one showing Moldavia’s columned front, and the other a view of 15th and Main Streets as it looked in 1914, two years before the Messenger building was demolished. The paintings were copied from photographs and help bridge the visual gap between old and new Richmond. They now flank the 1927 model by Edith Ragland; together the three works flesh out a lost piece of the writer’s life.

Poe Show
In June the Poe Museum sponsored a show of paintings inspired by the work of Edgar A. Poe in the Shockoe Bottom Arts Center. The artist, Chris Semtner, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and has exhibited nationally in several group and solo exhibitions of his paintings, prints and drawings. He is also the Tour Coordinator at the Poe Museum and one of the restorers who repaired the model of Poe’s Richmond after it was damaged by fire.

The show included thirteen small paintings delicately rendered in somber tones and exquisite detail. Included was an image of “the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir” where stands the tomb of Ulalume.” The Gold Bug crept down one wall while, across the room, the angels came “out of a cloud by night, chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” Morella grinned with sinister intelligence while William Wilson peered over William Wilson’s shoulder. On the opposite wall hung dark portraits of Edgar Poe and wife Virginia.

The opening reception was well attended. The museum, tour guide Rebecca Sams and La Siesta Restaurant provided refreshments. The publicity surrounding the show has attracted new visitors to both the Poe Museum and neighboring Shockoe Bottom Arts Center. Various works by the artist are available for sale in the Museum gift shop. For more information contact Chris Semtner at 648-5523.

A True Fan
New Jersey high school student Mami Umemura has long been such a fan of Poe that she makes two trips to Richmond every year just to visit the museum. Her surprise gifts of cookies, candy and homemade Poe-ania have been coming in the mail for at least two years now, keeping museum employees fed and entertained. This past spring, she presented the museum with the project she made for her art class at Holy Cross High School: a clay model of the Old Stone House, complete with a miniature raven perched on the roof. The Poe Museum appreciates Ms. Umemura’s generosity and loyal interest and hopes she will continue to read Poe.