The Earl House was located at 67 North Main Street in Providence when its roof sheltered Edgar Allan Poe during his visits here in 1848. It was located at the corner of North Main and Steeple, opposite the First Baptist Meeting-House. The building is no longer standing, but we do have an early engraving of the structure by Richard Smith, when it was the American House (see below).

The American House eventually moved two streets over sometime before 1848, and the Earl House moved into their old building.

It was in the Earl House Hotel where Poe drank heavily the night before sitting for the “Ultima Thule” daguerreotype in November 1848. It was also here that Poe purportedly had a glass of wine just days before his planned Christmas wedding with Sarah Helen Whitman, breaking his promise of sobriety and leaving her no other choice but to call off the union.

The walls of the Earl House saw some iconic moments of Poe’s time in Providence.