Herman Melville: From Obscurity to Immortality Melville's Massachusetts Home-Arrowhead Over forty, Melville need not be concerned with actually having to fight for the Union but in 1863, he and his wife decided to move back to New York City, exchanging Arrowhead, which he was unable to sell, for his brother Allan’s East 26th Street home. Herman Melville, Last Photograph, Mid-1880's Throughout this time period, Melville continued to toil away at his custom’s officer’s job.  When he began working at the Customs House in 1866 he took a horse drawn streetcar to work.  By the 1880’s, so much time had passed that Melville took the Third Avenue El, an elevated railway, to his office on the Upper East Side. Elizabeth Shaw Melville, Later In Life Melville would remain in this position until his resignation on December 31, 1885.  By that time, his wife had inherited a considerable amount of money from an aunt and other relatives, enough to allow Herman to retire.