The Walt Whitman Home - Camden, NJ
N 39° 56.550 W 075° 07.446
18S E 489397 N 4421382
In 1884, Walt Whitman purchased a modest, two-story frame house on Mickle Street for $1,750. It is the only house he ever owned. He lived there until his death in 1892, at the age of seventy-two.
Waymark Code: WM49RX
Location: New Jersey, United States
Date Posted: 07/26/2008
Views: 33
8. The WALT WHITMAN HOME (open 10-5 weekdays except Tues.; 1-5 Sun.), 330 Mickle St., is an unpretentious frame house set democratically is a solid row of dilapidated red brick houses occupied by Negroes and Italians. In Whitman's time the street was shaded by old trees; today the only tree in the block is an oriental plane before the poet's house. Built in 1848, the gray, flat roofed dwelling was occupied by Whitman from 1884 to his death in 1892. In 1923 it was bought by the city and and made into a museum for the foremost collection of Whitmaniana.
Among the exhibits are the cane used by the partially paralyzed poet; the rocking chair in which he sat by the upper story window after his legs became helpless; a great tin bathtub; a replica of the first edition of Leaves of Grass; furniture, books, papers, medals and even the poet's corkscrew.
When Whitman appeared in Camden in the spring of 1873, his most productive days were behind him, but although his body was stiffened by paralysis, his mind remained agile, and he constantly revised his poetry and even wrote several important prose works.
As his reputation grew, his home became the Mecca of literary friends and admirers from all over the world. There the poet modestly received their homage and delighted to entertain the dearest companions, John Buroughs, the naturalist, Horace Traubel, the Camden writer who was his Boswell, and Thomas Harned, one of his literary executors. No longer regarded as a dangerous libertine, Whitman sunned himself into old age in the rays of his great friendships.
He was singularly listed in the Camden directory of 1877: "Whitman, Walt, Poet, 431 Stevens Street." To most of the citizens, however, "Neighbor" might have been an even more appropriate designation. Ignoring the faint sniffs of "the best people," Whitman roamed the streets chatting with any and all who caught his fancy. he specially lingered in conversation with children and workingmen, whom he considered the clearest voices in "the human comedy." Now and then he would drop into a tavern for a short drink - or champagne on gala days - and a long talk. Strange-looking in his broad hat and unkempt beard, Whitman's desire to plumb the souls of his Camden neighbors was considered even stranger.
In the autumn of 1891 the Good Gray Poet began to build his gray stone tomb. Shortly afterward his right lung became affected; facing death with the sane courage that had marked his life he spoke of himself as "a little spark of soul dragging a great lummox of corpse-body to and fro." With less fortitude than he himself had shown, Whitman's grieving friends saw the long struggle end in March of the following year." New Jersey - A Guide to Its Present and Past, June 1939
I think what is especially significant about this narrative is most of it probably came from first hand information. Whitman had only been dead for 48 years so there were probably people who new him when they were in their teens and twenties. I visited the whitman house and it has been restored to look the same as the photograph which appears with this above article.
Today the Walt Whitman House, a National Historic Landmark, provides an intimate glimpse into the life of the poet, attracting visitors from around the world. Whitman's original letters, personal belongings, the bed in which he died, and the death notice that was nailed to the front door have all been preserved, as well as a collection of rare nineteenth-century photographs, including the earliest known image of Whitman - an 1848 daguerreotype.
The Walt Whitman House is located at 328 Mickle Boulevard, between 3rd & 4th Streets, Camden, New Jersey. The House is 2 blocks east of the Camden Waterfront.
For more information, please call (856) 964-5383. Open Wednesday-Sunday. Call to make an appointment.
Walt Whitman House in Camden
328 Mickle Boulevard
Camden, New Jersey 08103