On January 18 (one day before his actual birthday), my husband and I went to the Edgar Allan Poe birthday event at Westminster Hall in Baltimore.
It was so cold, rainy and sleeting that day, but it was amazing to watch several readings and performances accompanied by violinists from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra within the gothic atmosphere of Westminster Hall.
Edgar Allan Poe's grave is right outside Westminster Hall in Baltimore.
They had 2 times for the birthday performances: 3 p.m and 5 p.m. with 2 different amazing cakes to raffle off.
I can't believe I won the 3 p.m. cake! Here is a pic of me (in my Poe costume, ha, ha) holding the cake with Jeff Jerome, Curator Emeritus of the Poe House and Museum, who organizes these Poe events.
My hat inadvertently matched the cake, right down to the red roses! This was not planned, because no one knows what the cake will look like until the event.
I bought the vintage hat on eBay just for this event and added velvet roses from a Godiva candy box to the hatband. (One of our cats destroyed the hat I previously wore during our last attendance at a Poe birthday event .... cats and feathers don't go together.) But I saved the long black feather from the old hat and added it to the back of the hatband on this one as an homage to "The Raven" (although you can't see it from this angle, it's there!).
After the event, we stayed for one night at the Marriott Delta hotel in Baltimore near the waterfront. It has various Poe touches, including subtle ravens woven into their carpets, as well as a Poe-themed restaurant called Telltale Heart. Great food!
Now the huge Poe cake is in our fridge. It took up one whole shelf on its own, but I didn't want to cut it up. I finally cut off just the bottom portion and shared it (everyone agreed it was the most delicious cake) and am freezing the large portion with Poe's face for a possible future Halloween party.
Notice the Poe Toaster at Poe's grave. The original Poe Toaster, who started mysteriously leaving red roses and an unfinished bottle of cognac at Poe's grave in the 1930s, died in 1998 and one of his sons continued the tradition until 2009. Now an actor continues the tradition.
All in all, it was a really memorable event and set the tone for a great 2020!
Happy 211th Birthday, Edgar!
