On Halloween, the marble monument bearing a bronze image of Edgar Allan Poe is surrounded by dead flowers, someone's left behind an official-looking body tag and there's no shortage of curiosity seekers.
"The only thing my daughter wanted to do when we came to Baltimore was see the Edgar Allan Poe grave, and we're from Tucson, Arizona so we came a long way," Amber Kingman said.
A forlorn figure, Poe is known as the master of the macabre after perfecting the horror story with such works as "The Raven," "The Pit and the Pendulum" and other tales of terror.
"If I come in here on a Saturday to do a tour, I could stand here all day and answer questions," said Lu Ann Marshall, who has spent the last 39 years here at Baltimore's Westminster Hall and Burying Ground answering questions about the renowned author's life and his death at the age of 40 back in 1849.
Poe was found delirious, lying on Lombard Street outside a tavern in what is now Little Italy. He died a few days later.
"Since he died, there have been something like 20 reasons given as possible causes---rabies, alcoholism, drug addiction,” Marshall said. “The official diagnosis is brain fever, because if they didn't know what you died from that's what you died from."
At the time of his death, Poe also was wearing someone else's clothing, adding to the mystery surrounding his death.
Marshall said he had recently become engaged to his teenage sweetheart in Richmond, and there's speculation that he was trying to disguise himself.
"His fiancee's brothers didn't like him. They thought he was after her money and were following him,” said Marshall. “So he had on clothing that was not his own, because he was easily recognized with the black hat and the silver-tipped cane and the intricately tied cravat. You could pick him out of a crowd."
The other theory is that Poe may have fallen victim to people trying to stuff the ballot box, who offered loads of liquor to locals who would switch clothes with each other to cast multiple votes on Election Day.
The captivation with Poe and his death may gather renewed momentum with a special exhibit on loan at the George Peabody Library in Mount Vernon, which includes an actual lock of his hair.
"The hair, of course, was cut at his death and that was a common Victorian memorial practice to keep pieces of hair, make them into trinkets or just keep them as souvenirs," said Library Curator Gabrielle Dean.
There's also the last-known portrait of Poe taken a few weeks before his death and even a piece of the casket that he was buried in.
"They said when they moved him that there was a little name plate on there with his initials and it had been like 40 years, so probably it was falling apart and people liked to save things, you know, especially if somebody's famous, you want a little piece of the action," Marshall said.
It's an attraction that continues to draw students on field trips, thousands of tourists and even ghost hunters to Baltimore today.
"Do you know that's the weirdest thing? No one has ever claimed to conjure up Poe," said Marshall.
But much like his work, Poe's legacy is to take us to that thin line between reality and the unknown where we continue to tiptoe between the living and the dead, teetering on the edge of terror and left wanting for more.
If he's looking down now, is he happy with the legacy he left behind?
"I think he is and I think he would be thrilled to death at all the people who come here to pay tribute to him, leave him flowers, you know, just visit his grave," Marshall said.
"Edgar Allan Poe has that Baltimore feel to it,” said Heather Seidle, who brought her relatives to Westminster Hall. “It's like taking someone to Camden Yards or Ravens stadium or anywhere around here. It's awesome... a good piece of history for Baltimore."
