Poe Museum Nevermore?

The Edgar Allan Poe House in Baltimore is facing steep financial difficulties, again.

From a piece in the New York Times...

For a second year city leaders have chosen not to subsidize a museum in the tiny house where the impoverished Poe lived from around 1833 to 1835, a decision that means it may have to close soon.

Since the city cut off its $85,000 in annual support last year, the house has been operating on reserve funds, which are expected to run out as early as next summer. In the coming months consultants hired by the city will try to come up with a business plan to make the Edgar Allan Poe House financially self-sufficient, possibly by updating its exhibits to draw more visitors.

But the museum sits amid a housing project, far off this city’s tourist beaten path, and attracts only 5,000 visitors a year.

“It would be ironic, after all these years of aggressively and actively promoting the Poe House and the Poe grave, to have it close,” said Jeff Jerome, the house’s curator for more than 30 years.