Edgar Allan Poe house to close for fire-safety upgrades

The Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site will close Monday for fire-safety renovations and is expected to reopen this fall, the National Park Service said Friday.

The site, which consists of two adjoining townhomes on North Seventh Street near Spring Garden Street, is where the famed author lived at the end of his six years in Philadelphia. Poe lived in four other homes while in Philadelphia, but the Seventh Street location is the only one still standing.

The National Park Service last December awarded a construction contract to LMG Property Group, Inc. to install a new fire suppression system throughout the site. The total cost for the project, including design work performed in 2018, will cost a little over $931,000.

The author moved to Philadelphia in 1838 with his aunt and his wife, Virginia, seeking opportunities in the city’s literary scene. He wrote his best-known stories while in Philadelphia, including “The Murders in The Rue Morgue,” “The Mask of the Red Death,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Black Cat,” the National Park Service said.

Poe left Philadelphia in 1844. His wife, who had been suffering from tuberculosis, died a few years later.