New York University is planning to demolish a building where Edgar Allen Poe lived from late 1845 to 1846. NYU plans to replace it with the first expansion for the university's law school since 1954.
Poe was a student at the University from February to December 1826 before leaving because of gambling and drinking problems. His room on the West Range, a row of rooms behind the Lawn, is preserved.
The building in New York is famed to be the location where Poe wrote "The Raven." But according to John Beckman, assistant vice president for public affairs at NYU, that legend is just a part of New York folklore.
Over the 155 years since Poe lived there, the house has been renovated multiple times and served a variety of uses, from a restaurant to a fraternity house to its present use as a backroom for NYU Law School, Beckman said. It would be unrecognizable to Poe if he saw it today, he said.
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"Sometimes people can't make something that has been so transformed stand for what it was," he added.
NYU is looking into other ways to commemorate Edgar Allen Poe's life at the school, Beckman said.
The building became the subject of debate after rumors of the demolition surfaced. The city's Landmark Preservation Society recently turned down a proposal to label the house as a landmark, Beckman said. In its decision, the Society referred to architectural evidence that the only item in the house that can be linked historically to Poe is the banister on the stairs
In August, as news of NYU's plans to demolish Poe's house emerged, the Historic District Council filed a case with the New York State Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order against the school. Justice Robert Lippmann overturned the order yesterday, saying he could not find reason to prevent the university from owning and demolishing the house. Lippmann cited that the petitioners' claim had gone beyond the statute of limitations.
NYU looked into alternatives to demolishing the building, but it found the other options were not pragmatic or economic.
Although Poe did live in the house, it has changed so much that it would not be fitting to use the house as a memorial, Beckman said. "There are no 'Tell-Tale Hearts' beating under the floorboards" - now it's just wires covered by linoleum, he said.
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