Poe in Richmond: The Sale of the Lost Lenore House and Other Poe Sites

Richmond, Virginia, abounds with homes reputed to have hosted Edgar Allan Poe during his residence in the city. Thanks to increased interest in Poe in recent years, steps have been taken to preserve some of these historic structures. The Elmira Shelton House and Monumental Church are prime examples of successful preservation efforts, while the restoration of the Hiram Haines House, supposed site of Poe’s honeymoon, is still in progress. Now some lesser-known structures associated with Poe’s contemporaries are receiving long-overdue attention. Among these are the J. W. Fergusson House, the Lost Lenore House, and Talavera.

J. W. Fergusson House

Fig. 1.

James W. Fergusson.

Courtesy of the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

Poe is said to have spent a night in the J. W. Fergusson House at 2300 East Broad Street on Church Hill. James W. Fergusson (1821?–1909) was an apprentice for the Southern Literary Messenger while Poe was working for the periodical between 1835 and 1837 and is quoted by James L. West in the January 17, 1909, Richmond Times-Dispatch article “Richmond People Who Knew Poe” as saying, “Mr. Poe was a fine gentleman when he was sober. He was ever kind and courtly, and at such times every one liked him.” Since Fergusson was also one of the attendees of Poe’s 1836 wedding ceremony, a visit by Poe to Fergusson’s home would be likely—if the house had not been built one year after the poet’s death.

Fig. 2.

The J. W. Fergusson House in 2015.

Courtesy of Helena Semeraro.

The house was recently purchased by Helena Semeraro, who, with her husband, has painstakingly restored it and opened it in 2015 as a bed and breakfast named The Inn at Patrick Henry’s, after the Revolutionary War orator who delivered his “Liberty or Death” speech across the street from the site. In honor of Poe’s association with James Fergusson, Semeraro has included an Edgar Allan Poe Suite featuring volumes of Poe’s works and a bust of the author. The inn has been thriving and the Poe Suite is a major attraction, even if the rumor of Poe’s visit to the house can be definitively refuted.

The Lost Lenore House

Fifteen miles north of Richmond stands the Lost Lenore House in Ashland, Virginia. A recent listing for the site on the real-estate site Zillow.com begins, “Ready to be restored! One of the owners of this house since it was erected in 1858 was Elmira Shelton Royston [sic], who is famous as Edgar Allen [sic] Poe’s ‘Lost Lenore.’” The two-story frame house at 706 South Center Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 11, 1983, as the “Lost Lenore House” because it was once the home of Edgar Allan Poe’s last fiancée, Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton (1810–1888).

Fig. 3.

The Lost Lenore House in 2016.

Courtesy of the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

Since it was built nine years after his death, Poe could not have visited her there. At the time he knew her she was living in on Church Hill in Richmond. Shelton continued to reside in the Church Hill house until after the Civil War, when she lost both her home and her fortune. In her later years Shelton lived at different times with her two children, Southall Shelton and Anne Elizabeth Shelton Leftwich. By the time of the 1870 census Shelton is listed as living in the Ashland house with her daughter and her son-in-law John Henry Leftwich.

Fig. 4.

Elmira Royster Shelton from a daguerreotype.

Courtesy of the Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

How long she lived in Ashland is not clear. In 1875, when he interviewed her, Edward Virginius Valentine noted that Shelton was living on Clay Street in Richmond. Although she seems to have returned...