Edgar Allan Poe
Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland
Marker Inscription
Site of Poe's death. This structure, now the east building of Church Hospital, was erected in 1836 to house the Washington Medical College. Edgar Allan Poe, author and poet, was brought here, ill and semi-conscious, on October 3, 1849 and died four days later in 1857. The building was purchased by Church Home and Infirmary, which was renamed Church Home and Hospital in 1943.
Erected by Maryland Historical Society
The Story
This building, erected in 1836 for the Washington Medical College, is where Edgar Allan Poe spent his final hours. Brought here ill and semi-conscious on October 3, 1849, the author and poet died four days later under circumstances that remain one of literature's enduring mysteries. The structure later became part of Church Home and Hospital and survives as the east building of the complex.
Why it matters
It marks the strange, sorrowful end of one of America's most influential and imitated writers, a founder of the detective story and modern horror.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edgar Allan Poe
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Edgar Allan Poe
Baltimore, MD
This simple memorial marks a house connected to the final chapter of Edgar Allan Poe's life in Baltimore in 1849. The city holds several sites tied to the author's last days, reflecting how closely his memory is bound to it. Poe had lived and written in Baltimore in the early 1830s, a formative period for his craft.
Edgar Allan Poe, John Pendleton Kennedy, James H. Miller, and John Hazelhurst Boneval Latrobe
Baltimore, MD
In October 1833, three of Baltimore's literary gentlemen — John Pendleton Kennedy, James H. Miller, and John H. B. Latrobe — met in this house to judge a contest run by the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. Their unanimous choice was "MS. Found in a Bottle," written by an unknown, penniless newcomer named Edgar Allan Poe. The fifty-dollar prize, the recognition, and Poe's lasting friendship with Kennedy helped set the struggling writer on his path.
Founding of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Baltimore, MD · est. 1976
On May 9, 1911, a small group of physicians gathered in Baltimore to found the American Psychoanalytic Association, dedicated to advancing the then-radical ideas of Sigmund Freud in the United States. Its founders included the neurologist James J. Putnam as president and the Welsh analyst Ernest Jones as secretary, alongside pioneering American figures like Adolf Meyer. The plaque was dedicated in 1976 during the association's 65th annual meeting.
Ernest Stebbins
Baltimore, MD
For four decades Ernest Stebbins led the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, training generations of specialists who carried public-health work around the globe. He helped found the American Board of Preventive Medicine and advised the young World Health Organization as it took shape after World War II.