Philly’s Edgar Allen Poe house has been closed for 2 years. There’s still no reopening date.

As Philadelphia rounds the corner into spooky season, fans of all things gothic, literary, or historical may be disappointed to learn that the Edgar Allen Poe National Historical Site remains closed.

The three-story brick building in Spring Garden shuttered in summer 2024 for fire safety upgrades costing over $931,000. It was initially slated to reopen that fall, but renovations grew into a broader improvement project, according to the National Park Service.

More recently, Philadelphia’s tourism agency had said the site was expected to open this fall, and an Oct. 31 event celebrating Poe as the father of the modern detective novel is planned at the site. But the National Park Service says there is still no official reopening date for the public.

“I can tell you that we can offer no date for when the house will reopen,” said National Park Service spokesperson John Warren.

Calls to a supervisor at Independence National Historic Park, which manages the Poe house, went unanswered Thursday and Friday.

Warren said park service officials didn’t provide more details to him on the timeline, adding that there were “multiple, complex infrastructure projects going on at the site all at once.”

“If you have ever owned an old home, you know that repair projects often lead to discovering more issues, so it’s wisest not to speculate on an end date,” Warren said.

At the site Friday, volunteers tended to flowers and plants while National Park Service workers wrapped up another day renovating the building’s first floor.

National Park Service plasterer and painter Joe Palumbo said the house’s issues should have been addressed a decade earlier. He said when he started working there, the property “smelled awful” from likely water damage.

Palumbo said construction crews redid the restrooms, re-plastered and painted the first floor, and rehabbed the woodworking.

He estimated it would take another week to complete first-floor renovations. From there, outside contractors are set to replace the carpets and blinds.

Palumbo said a plan to renovate the building’s exterior is “on hold,” and he’s not sure why.

Built in the 1800s, the home is the only remaining residence where Poe lived during his six years in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844.

Retired National Park Service worker Helen McKenna spent 25 years at the site, educating people about Poe and his ties to Philadelphia. During her time working there, the house had exhibits, poetry recitations, a short biographical film, and a reading room styled after one of Poe’s published articles.

Back then, the house still had the original plaster, which was mouldering and falling away from its lathe. Of course, she said, the walls would have been gleaming white when Poe lived there in 1843 and 1844.

Spring Garden wasn’t even part of the city at that time, she said, and Poe would have traveled on horse-drawn omnibuses. These kinds of details help people imagine Poe, she said, not just as a literary figure, but as a person.

To her, the house captures the contrast between Poe’s literary stature — with his influence stretching across detective fiction, science fiction, poetry, and short stories — and the alcoholic, struggling writer who lived there with his mother-in-law and his wife, who had tuberculosis.

“There’s that sense of place. This grand, admired author, was living in really humble circumstances on the outskirts of the city,” she said. “He didn’t own the place, he was paying rent, and he wasn’t always able to pay the rent.”

Many cities have memorials to Poe, McKenna said. That’s because he traveled. He was born in Boston, grew up in Richmond and in England, lived twice in New York, had a stint in Delaware, and died in Baltimore.

Poe’s time in Philly, however, marked a creative high-water mark, McKenna said.

He moved to Philly after failing to find success with a novel in New York City and turned his attention to short stories. While in Philly, he published “Murders at the Rue Morgue,” “The Black Cat,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” McKenna said. He also became known as a charismatic speaker and acerbic critic.

At his best, McKenna said, Poe was “a genius of compression,” creating haunting, memorable stories at a time when interest in American writers was growing.

“I won’t say that Poe is the best writer that America ever produced, but he’s certainly had a ton of impact, globally,” McKenna said.