Lost Lenore (Richmond Landmark Series) Multi-Cache

She is said to be Edgar Allan Poe’s fiancée and the inspiration for the “Lost Lenore” in his poem “The Raven”. One of Poe's minor poems, "Song", is presumed to be about her, as well as the title character in "Annabel Lee".

After the death of his itinerant actor parents in 1811, Edgar Poe, aged three, and his sister Rosalie Poe, aged eleven months, were taken in by Richmond families. Edgar was cared for (never formally adopted) by John and Frances Valentine Allan, and Rosalie by William and Jane Scott MacKenzie. John Allan was a wealthy Scottish merchant, and gave Edgar the middle name Allan. In June 1825, the Allan's bought a home at auction, located at Fifth and Main Streets, where Edgar would spend his youth. (N37* 32.414 W077* 26.402 Plaque numbers ABCD). Across the street lived the Royster family. Their daughter, Sarah Elmira Royster, was Edgar's teenage sweetheart.

Elmira (as she was known) and Poe began their relationship in 1825, when she was 15 and he was 16 years old. Poe brought his young sweetheart to a garden that occupied the corner of Second and Franklin Streets (N37* 32.550 W077* 26.483 AUTO SPKR pipe UL Listed 159 EFGHIJKL). There among the flowers, mumbling fountain, and linden trees (hence the name Linden Row), he composed the poem Tamerlane in Elmira’s honor. They discussed marriage, though Elmira's father disapproved. They were secretly engaged and planned to be married on October 17th 1826. Edgar began classes at the University of Virginia that fall, and as he wrote to his fiancee back in Richmond, Elmira's father intercepted all of Poe's letters to his daughter. Their relationship was broken off by their disapproving parents.

At the end of his first semester in December 1826, Poe returned to Richmond and discovered Elmira was engaged to Alexander Shelton, a businessman from a well-to-do Virginia family. Elmira was 17 at the time but quickly gained social prominence and wealth. Poe was heartbroken. Instead of continuing his studies, he joined the Army. In 1830, he was admitted to West Point, but was dishonorably discharged the following year.

Throughout his life, Poe was unlucky in love. The woman he described as "the first purely ideal love of my soul" was Mrs. Jane Craig Stanard, the mother of his classmate Robert. (N37* 32.056 W077* 25.517 Historical Marker SA V W and b.ca. 1XYZ). She was the inspiration for the poem To Helen. In 1824, she died of Tuberculosis, a year after meeting Edgar, and the teenage Edgar spent many days lamenting at her grave, to which he wrote poem The Valley of Unrest .

In 1833, Poe lived in Baltimore with his father's sister Mrs. Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. It was during this time he started his career as a staff member of various magazines, including the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond and Burton's Gentleman's Magazine in Philadelphia. He traveled frequently between Baltimore, and Richmond.

About 1834, Elmira's friend Mary Winfree visited Edgar in Baltimore, and told him Elmira's marriage was not a happy one. In gratitude, Poe wrote the poem "To Mary [To Frances]", for his messenger... Mary, amid the cares — the woes Crowding around my earthly path, (Sad path, alas! where grows Not ev'n one lonely rose,)

While working at the Southern Literary Messenger at 15th and Main Streets in Richmond, Poe lived at Mrs. Yarrington's boarding house on Bank Street near Capital Square.(N 37 32.353 W77 26.097 C. Rudy MNPQ) In 1836, Poe's aunt, Mrs. Maria Clemm and her Daughter Virginia came from Baltimore to live with Poe. On May 16, in the parlor of the boarding house, Edgar married his cousin Virginia , a beautiful girl of fourteen years of age. A false statement as to her age was made at the time of the marriage. Their marriage lasted 11 years. In 1847, Virginia died of Tuberculosis while they were living in the Bronx, New York.

Meanwhile, Elmira 's husband Alexander had died in 1844 at the age of 36, and Elmira and her three children were left an estate worth $100,000 (a sizable fortune in 1844).

The romance of Elmira and Edgar blossomed again in the last years of Poe's life. After the death of his wife, he moved back to Richmond. He visited the widowed Elmira Shelton at her home at 2407 East Grace Street (N37* 31.867 W077* 25.212 Plaque Elmira Shelton House Built RSTU). Edgar and Elmira rekindled their relationship in July 1848. The two discussed marriage, but her children disapproved. Her deceased husband's Will stipulated that remarriage would remove three-quarters of her estate, so the marriage never took place.

But a year later (1849), after much consideration, Elmira accepted Poe’s proposal of marriage. To his Aunt Maria, Edgar wrote, “I think she loves me more devotedly than anyone I ever knew and I cannot help loving her in return.”

On September 25, 1849, Poe visited the Tally family, who lived at 2315 West Grace Street . It was here he gave his last reading of "The Raven", the poem which made him world famous.

Less than two weeks later, on October 3, 1849, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore. He was taken to the Hospital, where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849. Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was wearing someone else's clothes. The precise cause of Poe's death remains a mystery. But even more disheartening, he never had the chance to marry his childhood sweetheart...