Wadsworth-Longfellow House

Infobox nrhp
name = Wadsworth-Longfellow House
nrhp_type = nhl


caption = The entrance to the Wadsworth-Longfellow House
location =487 Congress St
Portland, Maine
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built =
architect = Peleg Wadsworth
architecture =
designated=December 29, 1962cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=37&ResourceType=Building
title=Wadsworth-Longfellow House |accessdate=2008-06-25|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added =October 15, 1966
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refnum = 66000090cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
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governing_body = The Wadsworth-Longfellow House is a historic house now open as a museum. It is located at 489 Congress Street in Portland, Maine, United States, and is operated by the Maine Historical Society. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, and administratively added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The house is open daily to public from May through October (half days on Sundays). An admission fee is charged.

History

The house has both historical and literary importance, as it is both the oldest standing structure on the Portland peninsula and the childhood home of famous American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Revolutionary War General Peleg Wadsworth built the house in 1785-1786, the first wholly brick dwelling in Portland. [Haas, Irvin. "Historic Homes of American Authors". Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 69] Wadsworth raised ten children in the two-story structure with a pitched roof before retiring to the family farm in Hiram, Maine, in 1807. His daughter Zilpah and her husband Stephen Longfellow IV were married in the house.

Their son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was born nearby at the home of an aunt in 1807. He did not move with his parents to this house until he was eight months old, but spent the next 35 years there. [Haas, Irvin. "Historic Homes of American Authors". Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1991. ISBN 0891331808. p. 70] The Longfellows added today's third story in 1815.

Anne Longfellow Pierce (1810-1901) was the last family member to live in the house. She deliberately kept the house much as it was in Peleg Wadsworth's time, but is perhaps best remembered for growing oranges in the window (no small feat in a Maine winter) [Portland Historical Society] . Her will stipulated that the house, lot, and many furnishings be given to the Maine Historical Society upon her death.

ee also

*Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=sIatbud9ScIC&dq=History+of+Maine&lr=&num=50&as_brr=0&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 The Wadsworth-Longfellow House: Longfellow's Old Home.] By Nathan Goold. Published 1908. Full image at books.google.

External links

* [http://www.mainehistory.org/house_overview.shtml Maine Historical Society - Wadsworth-Longfellow House]