Elmira Shelton House - 1844 & 1957 - Richmond, VA
Posted by: bluesnote
N 37° 31.856 W 077° 25.216
18S E 286143 N 4156526
A historic house located near St. John's Church.
Waymark Code: WMMT3H
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 11/01/2014
Views: 3
Taken from the website, "Built in 1844, this was the home of the woman to whom Poe was engaged both when he was seventeen and when he was forty. Their first engagement was broken off by her father while Poe was at college. Mr. Royster intercepted and destroyed Poe’s letters to her and convinced Elmira that Poe had forgotten about her. Elmira soon engaged herself to Alexander Barrett Shelton. After Shelton’s early death, Elmira rented this house on Church Hill across Grace Street from Saint John’s Church. Her brothers also lived nearby on Grace Street. When Poe returned to Richmond in 1849, he began to visit Shelton regularly, much to the disapproval of her brothers. Even her children apparently did not care for Poe and begged her not to marry him. By the end of September, Elmira had agreed to marry Poe, and he had set the date for October 17, after his return from a business trip to Philadelphia. Poe never reached Philadelphia but died in Baltimore ten days before the wedding would have taken place. Rumors soon began to circulate that Mrs. Shelton’s brothers had beaten Poe and that his injuries had caused his early death. Although a similar appeared in the United States Magazine in 1857, the theory was never widely accepted, and the cause of Poe’s death remains a mystery. The newspapers at the time attributed it to “congestion of the brain.”
Year built or dedicated as indicated on the structure or plaque: 1844 & 1957
Full Inscription (unless noted above): Historic Building
Elmira Shelton House
Elmira Shelton House
Purchased for Historica Richmond Foundation
By
The Association for the preservation of Virginia Antiques
1957
Website (if available): [Web Link]
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