Edward Gorey House

The Edward Gorey House in Yarmouthport preserves the home and studio of the great American illustrator, whose delicately crosshatched drawings of fur-coated figures and mysterious events made him one of the most distinctive artists of the 20th century. The house — a mid-18th-century Cape Cod building — contains Gorey's extraordinary collections of art, toys, Japanese woodblock prints, and curious objects, displayed much as they were when he lived here.

Gorey was also an ardent animal welfare advocate who redirected much of his estate to cat and dog rescue. The museum reflects this: the Gorey Trust continues to support animal welfare work. The house itself is small and the tour is intimate — you feel genuinely close to the life of the person who lived here. Don't miss the small theatre in the barn, where Gorey's animated works and other films are shown.

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A story
Edward Gorey was famously associated with New York and his eccentric illustrated books, but he spent the last fourteen years of his life in Yarmouthport, on Cape Cod. He arrived for the summers and stayed permanently, filling the old house with his collections: Cape Cod art, Victorian toys, Japanese art, stuffed animals, and the accumulated possessions of a mind that found everything interesting. He died in 2000, and the house has been a museum since 2002.

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