Mount Vernon Cultural Walk: John H. B. Latrobe House

Be Here Stories

The Mount Vernon Cultural Walk is created by The Baltimore National Heritage Area (BNHA), which promotes, preserves, and enhances Baltimore's historic and cultural legacy and natural resources for current and future generations. A walking tour of this and other destinations is available at www.explorebaltimore.org/tours. Located at 11 West Mulberry Street The literary career of Edgar Allan Poe was launched from this rowhouse in 1833, when the penniless unknown author submitted a short story to the Baltimore Saturday Visitor writing contest. The contest’s judges gathered at the home of John Latrobe to select the winners. Upon reading Poe’s story, “Ms. Found in a Bottle,” they unanimously declared Poe the winner for best fiction and awarded him a $50 prize. He also nearly won the poetry award for “The Coliseum.” The prize and public recognition gave a major boost to the 24-year-old West Point dropout. Poe also gained a mentor, contest judge John P. Kennedy, a key figure in the literary scene who offered him valuable advice and support over the years. The young Poe lived in Baltimore only from 1831 to 1835, but they were critical years: not only did he achieve his first success, but he also developed as a writer through intense work. Famously, Poe returned to the city in 1849. He was found, delirious, lying in a gutter in East Baltimore and died in a local hospital four days later. He is buried at the Westminster Hall cemetery on West Fayette Street.