Today marks the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birth, and there are a bunch of East Coast cities duking it out to claim the legendary writer as their own. Both Baltimore and Richmond have planned a slew of bicentennial events for this year, but Charlottesvillle– where the man studied and started to write (as UVA is his alma mater)– has skimped out on planning a big birthday bash. So writes The Hook, bemoaning the absence of a celebration for “the man whose elegiac poems and macabre tales have cemented his reputation as one of America’s greatest writers.”

In fact, The Hook writes that “there’s even a plan afoot to destroy part of the natural area that inspired one of his notable short stories.” Plans are in the works to build a new reservoir at the place Poe describes in his short story, “A Tale of the Ragged Mountains” which begins like this: “During the fall of the year 1827, while residing near Charlottesville, Virginia, I casually made the acquaintance of Mr. Augustus Bedloe.”