The house is a small 2 1/2 story brick duplex (now part of a row of houses), containing 5 rooms. First floor: parlor (front) and kitchen (rear). Second floor: 2 bedrooms. Top floor: 1 bedroom (assigned by most biographers as Poe’s room, although others believe that he used the rear bedroom and that Virginia used the small attic bedroom). The stairs for both floors are very narrow and winding, especially those leading to the top floor. At some point after Poe’s residence, the back of the building was extended by about 4 feet. This extension remains, although the original size can be seen in the changing floorboards.

All interior walls and ceilings are horse-hair plaster, probably whitewashed during Poe’s day. (The walls, ceilings and mantels are currently painted off-white, with all wood elements painted brown.) All rooms have uneven wooden plank flooring, two covered with carpeting. All doors, mantels, baseboards and related trim work are wood. There are three fireplaces in the house, two on the first floor (kitchen and parlor) and one on the second (front bedroom). The fireplaces in the parlor and bedroom share the same chimney. All fireplaces are lined with brick and have brick hearths.

The primary item on display is the house itself. In addition, a number of pieces related to Poe are exhibited, including glassware and china belonging to John Allan (Poe’s foster father), a telescope reputedly used by Poe, Poe’s sextant, a traveling desk (or lap desk) he presumably used at the University of Virginia and a full-sized color reproduction of the only known portrait of Poe’s wife, Virginia, done at her death in 1847. A set of Gustave Dore’s 1884 illustrations for Poe’s “The Raven” are featured on the second floor. A series of videos and other displays relate to Poe’s life as an author and his death (including several of the bottles of cognac left over the years at Poe’s grave by the mysterious “Poe Toaster” and a contemporary reprint of Griswold’s infamous obituary of Poe, here from the October 24, 1849 edition of the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper). Some furniture of the period, although not Poe’s, is also exhibited, primarily on the top floor.