Edgar Allen Poe Nearly Became Resident of Utica’s Mental Hospital in 1846

Famed horror and mystery author Edgar Allen Poe was nearly committed to the Utica Psychiatric Hospital during a bout of depression in the 1840s.

A biography of Poe states that Poe had "become deranged" and friends "wanted to place him in charge [of doctors] of the Insane Retreat at Utica."

Poe was living in the Bronx, so any institutionalization at the time would have sent him upstate to Utica. The Poe Cottage in the Bronx, by the way, is still standing and can be visited in Poe Park.

The Old Main building at the Utica State Hospital today stands as a tall and imposing structure in West Utica. Imagine what the place would have done on Poe's imagination.

Inside Old Main at the Utica Psychiatric Center