Edgar Allan Poe lived at 532 N 7th Street from January 1843 to April 1844, the most productive period of his Philadelphia years. He wrote "The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale Heart," and "The Gold-Bug" in this brick row house in the Spring Garden neighborhood, a few miles north of the colonial historic district. The house is now a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service and — unusually for a Philadelphia attraction — admission is free.
The house has been largely stripped of its original furnishings, which makes it eerily appropriate: empty rooms, bare floorboards, and the famous dark basement where a ranger will turn off the lights and recite the opening of "The Black Cat." The effect is more unsettling than you'd expect in a federally operated building. Rangers are knowledgeable about Poe's Philadelphia years, which are less famous than his time in Baltimore or New York but equally important to his work. A small gallery holds first editions and original manuscripts.