Baltimore cuts off funding for Poe House

[February 05, 2011]  BALTIMORE (AP) -- Baltimore has cut off funding for the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, one of the strongest links between the literary icon and the city that claims him as its own.

Curator Jeff Jerome says he's been told that the Poe House must become self-sustaining by mid-2012, or it will close. The city hasn't been funding the museum since last summer, but Jerome is keeping it open with money he's raised over the years.

The Poe House had been funded at $80,000 a year, which includes Jerome's salary, a security system, utilities and supplies. Jerome has been the curator and sole employee since the city took control of the building in 1979.

Poe lived in the tiny west Baltimore rowhouse with his aunt and cousins during some lean years in the 1830s, before he became famous.

[Associated Press; By BEN NUCKOLS]

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