Longfellow National Historic Site
Encyclopedia
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, also known as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House and, until December 2010, Longfellow National Historic Site, is a historic site located at 105 Brattle Street
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. For almost fifty years, it was the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
. For a time, it had previously served as the headquarters of George Washington
.
The house was built in 1759 for John Vassall, who fled the Cambridge area at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War
because of his loyalty to the king of England. George Washington used the abandoned home as his first official headquarters as commander of the Continental Army
; the home served as his base of operations during the Siege of Boston
until he moved out in July 1776. Andrew Craigie, Washington's Apothecary General
, was the next person to own the home for a significant period of time. After purchasing the house in 1791, he instigated the home's only major addition. Craigie's financial situation at the time of his death in 1819 forced his widow Elizabeth Craigie to take in boarders. It was as a boarder that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came into the home. He became its owner in 1843, when his father-in-law Nathan Appleton
purchased it as a wedding gift. He lived in the home until his death in 1882.
The last family to live in the home was the Longfellow family, who established the Longfellow Trust in 1913 for its preservation. In 1972, the home and all of its furnishings was donated to, and was made part of the National Park Service
. The home, which represents the mid-Georgian architectural style
, is seasonally open to the public.
The original house was built in 1759 for Loyalist
John Vassall who inherited the land along what was called the King's Highway in Cambridge when he was 21. He demolished the structure that had stood there and built a new mansion. The home became his summer residence with his wife Elizabeth (Oliver) and children until 1774. His wife's brother was Thomas Oliver
, then royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. On the eve of the American Revolution in September 1774, they fled Boston.
In the days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord
, the home was used as a temporary hospital. Colonel John Glover and the Marblehead
Regiment occupied the house as their temporary barracks in June 1775, followed by General George Washington
, Commander-in-Chief of the newly-formed Continental Army
. Washington used the home as his headquarters and home while he planned the Siege of Boston
between July 1775 and April 1776; he found the view of the Charles River
particularly useful for that purpose. Originally, Washington had used the home of Samuel Langdon
in Cambridge but decided he needed more space for his staff. The home was shared with several aide-de-camp
s, including colonel Robert H. Harrison
. During his time there, Washington was visited by John Adams
and Abigail Adams
, Benedict Arnold
, Henry Knox
, and Nathaniel Greene
. In his study, Washington also confronted Dr. Benjamin Church
with evidence that he was a spy. It was in this house that Washington received a poem written by Phillis Wheatley
, the first published African-American poet. "If you should ever come to Cambridge", he wrote to her, "I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses".
Martha Washington
joined her husband in December 1775 and stayed until March 1776. She brought with her Washington's nephew George Lewis as well as her son John Parke Custis
and his wife Eleanor Calvert
. On Twelfth Night
in January 1776, the couple celebrated their wedding anniversary in the home. Mrs. Washington reported to a friend that "some days we have [heard] a number of cannon and shells from Boston and Bunkers Hill". She used the front parlor as her personal reception room, still furnished with the English-made furniture left behind by the Vassalls. The Washingtons also had several servants, including a tailor named Giles Alexander, and several slaves including "Billy" Lee
. They also entertained very often. Surviving household accounts show that the family purchased large quantities of beef, lamb, wild ducks, geese, fresh fish, plums, peaches, barrels of cider, gallons of brandy and rum, and 217 bottles of Madeira wine
purchased in a two-week period.
Washington left the house in April 1776. Nathaniel Tracy, who had made a great fortune as one of the earliest and most successful privateers under Washington, owned the house from 1781 to 1786. He then went bankrupt and sold the house to Thomas Russell, a wealthy Boston merchant, who in turn occupied it until 1791.
of the American army. In his ballroom, Craigie hosted Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the father of Queen Victoria
. While living in the home, he married the daughter of a Nantucket
clergyman, 22-year old Elizabeth Craigie, 17 years her elder. Craigie overspent in trying to restore the home and, when he died in 1819, he left his wife Elizabeth in great debt; Mrs. Craigie took in boarders to support herself, most often people connected to nearby Harvard University
. Short-term residents of the home included Jared Sparks
, Edward Everett
, and Joseph Emerson Worcester
.
Longfellow moved to Cambridge to take a job at Harvard College
as Smith Professor of Modern Languages and of Belles Lettres. A friend, Cornelius Conway Felton
, recommended that Longfellow rent a room on the third floor of the home of a Professor Stearns on Kirkland Street; Longfellow stayed there for the 1836–1837 academic year. Beginning in the summer of 1837, he rented rooms on the east side of the second floor of the home on Brattle Street, now owned by Elizabeth Craigie. At first, Mrs. Craigie thought he was a student at Harvard and refused to rent to him until he convinced her that he was a professor as well as the author of the book she was reading, Outre-Mer
.
Longfellow's new landlady had earned a reputation for being eccentric and often wore a turban
. In the 1840s, Longfellow wrote about an incident when canker-worms were devastating the elm trees on the property. Mrs. Craigie "would sit by the open window and let them crawl over her white turban. She refused to have the trees protected against them & said, Why, sir, they have as good a right to live as we—they are our fellow worms". The maid at the time, a woman named Miriam, served Longfellow his meals in his room. Longfellow called her "the giantess".
The rooms Longfellow rented were the rooms once used personally by George Washington while it was his headquarters. He proudly wrote to his friend George Washington Greene
: "I live in a great house which looks like an Italian villa: have two large rooms opening into each other. They were once Gen. Washington's chambers".
The first major works Longfellow composed in the home were Hyperion
, a prose romance likely inspired by his pursuit for the affections of Frances Appleton, and Voices of the Night, a poetry collection which included "A Psalm of Life
". 20th-century literary scholar Edward Wagenknecht
notes that it was these early years at the Craigie House which marked "the real beginning of Longfellow's literary career". His landlady, Elizabeth Craigie, died in 1841.
After Elizabeth Craigie's death, the entire property was leased by Joseph Emerson Worcester from her heirs; he in turn rented the eastern half of the house to Longfellow. In 1843, the house was purchased by Nathan Appleton
, who gave the house to Longfellow as a wedding gift when Longfellow married Nathan's daughter Frances. He paid $10,000 for the home. Frances wrote to her brother Thomas Gold Appleton
on August 30, 1843: "We have decided to let Father purchase this grand old mansion", especially after Longfellow's friend George Washington Greene reminded them "how noble an inheritance this is — where Washington dwelt in every room". Longfellow was proud of the connection to Washington and in 1844 purchased a bust of the home's former occupant, a copy of the sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon
. Worcester and his wife became tenants under Longfellow in the western half of the house until their new home a few doors down was completed that spring. Mrs. Longfellow wrote on May 5, 1844, "Worcester family left us in complete possession [of the house], with rooms nicely cleaned, and uncarpeted stairs and entries".
Nathan Appleton also purchased the land across the street, as Longfellow's mother wrote, "so that their view of the River Charles
may not be intercepted". In all, Longfellow's gift included nine acres of land.
Longfellow lived in the house for the next four decades, producing many of his most famous poems including "Paul Revere's Ride
" and "The Village Blacksmith
", as well as longer works such as Evangeline
, The Song of Hiawatha
, and The Courtship of Miles Standish
. In all, while living in this house, Longfellow published eleven poetry collections, two novels, three epic poems, and several plays as well as a translation of Dante Alighieri's
Divine Comedy. Even as the poet's popularity increased, Longfellow and his wife most often referred to the home as "Craigie House" or "Craigie Castle".
Longfellow oversaw the creation of a formal garden and his wife oversaw decorating the interior. Mrs. Longfellow purchased several items from Tiffany's
in New York as well as $350 worth of carpets. They installed central heating in 1850 and gaslight in 1853. During their time in the house, the Longfellows hosted famous artists, writers, politicians and other luminaries who were attracted to Longfellow's hospitality and fame. Specific visitors included Charles Dickens
, William Makepeace Thackeray
, singer Jenny Lind
, and actress Fanny Kemble
. Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
also visited the house privately and requested the company of Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson
, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
, and James Russell Lowell
. Mr. and Mrs. Longfellow also raised their three daughters and two sons in the home. Longfellow and his wife stayed in the home until their respective deaths but spent their summers after 1850 in Nahant, Massachusetts
.
Longfellow often wrote in his first-floor study, formerly Washington's office, surrounded by portraits of his friends, including charcoal portraits by Eastman Johnson
of Charles Sumner
, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne
, and Cornelius Conway Felton
. Longfellow would write either at the center table, at the desk, or in the armchair by the fire.
Fanny Longfellow died in the home in July 1861 after her dress accidentally caught fire; her husband attempted to quell the flames, managing to keep her face from burning. Longfellow himself was burned on his own face and was scarred badly enough that he began growing a beard to hide it.
Longfellow died in 1882 and his daughter Alice Longfellow was the last of his children to live in the home. In 1913, the surviving Longfellow children established the Longfellow House Trust to preserve the home as well as its view to the Charles River. Their intention was to preserve the home as a memorial to Longfellow and Washington and to showcase the property as a "prime example of Georgian architecture".
In 1962, the trust successfully lobbied for the house to become a national historic landmark. In 1972, the Trust donated the property to the National Park Service
and it became the Longfellow National Historic Site and open to the public as a house museum. On display are many of the original nineteenth century furnishings, artwork, over 10,000 books owned by Longfellow, and the dining table around which many important visitors gathered. Everything on display was owned by the Longfellow family. The site was renamed to Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site on December 22, 2010, to ensure that the connection to Washington was not lost in the memory of the general public.
The site also possesses some 750,000 original documents relevant to the former occupants of the home. These archives are open to scholarly research by appointment.
Across the street from the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is the municipal park known as Longfellow Park. In the middle sits a memorial by sculptor Daniel Chester French
dedicated in 1914. In addition to a bust of the poet, a carved bas-relief by Henry Bacon
depicts the famous characters Miles Standish
, Sandalphon
, the village blacksmith, the Spanish student, Evangeline
, and Hiawatha
.
style. The pair of large pilaster
s that frame the facade expressed John Vassall's aristocratic background. In 1791, Andrew Craigie added the two side piazzas and the two-story back ell and also expanded the library into a twenty by thirty foot ballroom with its own entrance. During the Longfellow family's time in the home, very few structural changes were made. As Frances Longfellow wrote, "we are full of plans & projects with no desire, however, to change a feature of the old countenance which Washington has rendered sacred".
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is noted for its garden on the northeast end of the property. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow oversaw the creation of the original garden, shaped as a lyre
, shortly after his wedding. In 1845, he began refurbishing the garden in earnest and imported trees from England with help from Asa Gray
. These trees included "a number of evergreens, among them a cedar of Lebanon and pines from the Himalayas, Norway, Switzerland and Oregon". The lyre shape proved impractical and a new design was made with the help of a landscape architect named Richard Dolben in 1847. The new design was a square surrounding a circle that was cut into four tear-shaped garden beds outlined by trimmed boxwood
. Mrs. Longfellow referred to the shape as a "Persian rug".
After her father's death in 1882, Alice Longfellow commissioned two of America's first female landscape architects, Martha Brookes Hutcheson
and Ellen Biddle Shipman
, to redesign the formal garden in the Colonial Revival style. The garden was recently restored by an organization called Friends of the Longfellow House, which completed the final stage of its reconstruction, the historic pergola
, in 2008.
For a time, Longfellow's home was one of the most photographed and most recognizable homes in the United States. In the early twentieth century Sears, Roebuck and Company
sold scaled-down blueprints of the home so that anyone could build their own version of Longfellow's home. Several replicas of Longfellow's home appear throughout the United States. One replica, simply called Longfellow House
, still exists in Minneapolis, Minnesota
. Originally built by businessman Robert "Fish" Jones, it currently serves as an information center for the Minneapolis Park System and is on the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
.
Brattle Street (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the "King's Highway" or "Tory Row" before the American Revolutionary War, is the site of many buildings of historic interest, including the modernist glass-and-concrete building that housed the Design Research store,and a Georgian mansion where...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. For almost fifty years, it was the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
. For a time, it had previously served as the headquarters of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
.
The house was built in 1759 for John Vassall, who fled the Cambridge area at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
because of his loyalty to the king of England. George Washington used the abandoned home as his first official headquarters as commander of the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
; the home served as his base of operations during the Siege of Boston
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
until he moved out in July 1776. Andrew Craigie, Washington's Apothecary General
Apothecary General
Apothecary General was a British and American military post held during the times of the American Revolution.According to British regulations, the Apothecary General, like the Judge Advocate General, was a noncombatant officer who, under directions from the secretary at war, supplied the army with...
, was the next person to own the home for a significant period of time. After purchasing the house in 1791, he instigated the home's only major addition. Craigie's financial situation at the time of his death in 1819 forced his widow Elizabeth Craigie to take in boarders. It was as a boarder that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow came into the home. He became its owner in 1843, when his father-in-law Nathan Appleton
Nathan Appleton
Nathan Appleton was an American merchant and politician.- Biography :Appleton was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, the son of Isaac Appleton and his wife Mary Adams. Appleton's father was a church deacon, and Nathan was brought up in "strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism." He was...
purchased it as a wedding gift. He lived in the home until his death in 1882.
The last family to live in the home was the Longfellow family, who established the Longfellow Trust in 1913 for its preservation. In 1972, the home and all of its furnishings was donated to, and was made part of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
. The home, which represents the mid-Georgian architectural style
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
, is seasonally open to the public.
Early history
The original house was built in 1759 for Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...
John Vassall who inherited the land along what was called the King's Highway in Cambridge when he was 21. He demolished the structure that had stood there and built a new mansion. The home became his summer residence with his wife Elizabeth (Oliver) and children until 1774. His wife's brother was Thomas Oliver
Thomas Oliver (Lieutenant Governor)
Thomas Oliver was the last Royal Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.-Biography:Born in Antigua to a wealthy plantation owner, Thomas Oliver graduated from Harvard College in 1753...
, then royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. On the eve of the American Revolution in September 1774, they fled Boston.
Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy , and Cambridge, near Boston...
, the home was used as a temporary hospital. Colonel John Glover and the Marblehead
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...
Regiment occupied the house as their temporary barracks in June 1775, followed by General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, Commander-in-Chief of the newly-formed Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...
. Washington used the home as his headquarters and home while he planned the Siege of Boston
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War, in which New England militiamen—who later became part of the Continental Army—surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within...
between July 1775 and April 1776; he found the view of the Charles River
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
particularly useful for that purpose. Originally, Washington had used the home of Samuel Langdon
Samuel Langdon
Samuel Langdon was a American Congregational clergyman and educator. After serving as pastor in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he was appointed president of Harvard University in 1774. He held that post until 1780....
in Cambridge but decided he needed more space for his staff. The home was shared with several aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
s, including colonel Robert H. Harrison
Robert H. Harrison
Robert Hanson Harrison was an American jurist.Harrison began the American Revolutionary War as a lieutenant in the 3rd Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army. In 1775 he became an aide-de-camp to General George Washington with the rank of lieutenant colonel...
. During his time there, Washington was visited by John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
and Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
, Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army but later defected to the British Army. While a general on the American side, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces...
, Henry Knox
Henry Knox
Henry Knox was a military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army, and also served as the first United States Secretary of War....
, and Nathaniel Greene
Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When the war began, Greene was a militia private, the lowest rank possible; he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer. Many places in the United...
. In his study, Washington also confronted Dr. Benjamin Church
Benjamin Church
Dr. Benjamin Church was effectively the first Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, serving as the "Chief Physician & Director General" of the Medical Service of the Continental Army from July 27, 1775 to October 17, 1775. He was also active in Boston's Sons of Liberty movement in the years before the...
with evidence that he was a spy. It was in this house that Washington received a poem written by Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley was the first African American poet and first African-American woman whose writings were published. Born in Gambia, Senegal, she was sold into slavery at age seven...
, the first published African-American poet. "If you should ever come to Cambridge", he wrote to her, "I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses".
Martha Washington
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered to be the first First Lady of the United States...
joined her husband in December 1775 and stayed until March 1776. She brought with her Washington's nephew George Lewis as well as her son John Parke Custis
John Parke Custis
John Parke Custis was a Virginia planter, the son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington.-Childhood:...
and his wife Eleanor Calvert
Eleanor Calvert
Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart was a prominent member of the Calvert family of Maryland. Upon her marriage to John Parke Custis, she became the daughter-in-law of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and the stepdaughter-in-law of George Washington...
. On Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night (holiday)
Twelfth Night is a festival in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany and concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas.It is defined by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the...
in January 1776, the couple celebrated their wedding anniversary in the home. Mrs. Washington reported to a friend that "some days we have [heard] a number of cannon and shells from Boston and Bunkers Hill". She used the front parlor as her personal reception room, still furnished with the English-made furniture left behind by the Vassalls. The Washingtons also had several servants, including a tailor named Giles Alexander, and several slaves including "Billy" Lee
William Lee (valet)
William Lee , also known as Billy Lee or Will Lee, was George Washington's personal servant and the only one of Washington's slaves freed outright by Washington in his will...
. They also entertained very often. Surviving household accounts show that the family purchased large quantities of beef, lamb, wild ducks, geese, fresh fish, plums, peaches, barrels of cider, gallons of brandy and rum, and 217 bottles of Madeira wine
Madeira wine
Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...
purchased in a two-week period.
Washington left the house in April 1776. Nathaniel Tracy, who had made a great fortune as one of the earliest and most successful privateers under Washington, owned the house from 1781 to 1786. He then went bankrupt and sold the house to Thomas Russell, a wealthy Boston merchant, who in turn occupied it until 1791.
Craigie family and boarders
Andrew Craigie bought the house in 1791; Craigie had been the first Apothecary GeneralApothecary General
Apothecary General was a British and American military post held during the times of the American Revolution.According to British regulations, the Apothecary General, like the Judge Advocate General, was a noncombatant officer who, under directions from the secretary at war, supplied the army with...
of the American army. In his ballroom, Craigie hosted Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the father of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. While living in the home, he married the daughter of a Nantucket
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
clergyman, 22-year old Elizabeth Craigie, 17 years her elder. Craigie overspent in trying to restore the home and, when he died in 1819, he left his wife Elizabeth in great debt; Mrs. Craigie took in boarders to support herself, most often people connected to nearby Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Short-term residents of the home included Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...
, Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
, and Joseph Emerson Worcester
Joseph Emerson Worcester
Joseph Emerson Worcester was an American lexicographer and chief competitor of Webster's Dictionary in the mid-nineteenth-century. Their rivalry became known as the "dictionary wars". Worcester's dictionaries focused on traditional pronunciation and spelling, unlike Noah Webster's attempts to...
.
Longfellow moved to Cambridge to take a job at Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
as Smith Professor of Modern Languages and of Belles Lettres. A friend, Cornelius Conway Felton
Cornelius Conway Felton
Cornelius Conway Felton was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University....
, recommended that Longfellow rent a room on the third floor of the home of a Professor Stearns on Kirkland Street; Longfellow stayed there for the 1836–1837 academic year. Beginning in the summer of 1837, he rented rooms on the east side of the second floor of the home on Brattle Street, now owned by Elizabeth Craigie. At first, Mrs. Craigie thought he was a student at Harvard and refused to rent to him until he convinced her that he was a professor as well as the author of the book she was reading, Outre-Mer
Outre-Mer
Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea is a prose collection which was the first major work by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The term "outre-mer" is French for "overseas".-Overview:...
.
Longfellow's new landlady had earned a reputation for being eccentric and often wore a turban
Turban
In English, Turban refers to several types of headwear popularly worn in the Middle East, North Africa, Punjab, Jamaica and Southwest Asia. A commonly used synonym is Pagri, the Indian word for turban.-Styles:...
. In the 1840s, Longfellow wrote about an incident when canker-worms were devastating the elm trees on the property. Mrs. Craigie "would sit by the open window and let them crawl over her white turban. She refused to have the trees protected against them & said, Why, sir, they have as good a right to live as we—they are our fellow worms". The maid at the time, a woman named Miriam, served Longfellow his meals in his room. Longfellow called her "the giantess".
The rooms Longfellow rented were the rooms once used personally by George Washington while it was his headquarters. He proudly wrote to his friend George Washington Greene
George Washington Greene
George Washington Greene was an American historian as well as the grandson of Major-General Nathanael Greene, who served during the American Revolutionary War.-Biography:...
: "I live in a great house which looks like an Italian villa: have two large rooms opening into each other. They were once Gen. Washington's chambers".
The first major works Longfellow composed in the home were Hyperion
Hyperion (Longfellow)
Hyperion: A Romance is one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's earliest works, published in 1839. It is a prose romance which was published alongside his first volume of poems, Voices of the Night.-Overview:...
, a prose romance likely inspired by his pursuit for the affections of Frances Appleton, and Voices of the Night, a poetry collection which included "A Psalm of Life
A psalm of life
"A Psalm of Life" is a poem written by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.-Composition and publication history:Longfellow wrote the poem shortly after completing lectures on German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was heavily inspired by him...
". 20th-century literary scholar Edward Wagenknecht
Edward Wagenknecht
Edward Wagenknecht was an American literary critic and teacher, who specialized in 19th century American literature. He wrote and edited many books on literature and movies, and taught for many years at various universities, including the University of Chicago and Boston University...
notes that it was these early years at the Craigie House which marked "the real beginning of Longfellow's literary career". His landlady, Elizabeth Craigie, died in 1841.
Longfellow family
Nathan Appleton
Nathan Appleton was an American merchant and politician.- Biography :Appleton was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, the son of Isaac Appleton and his wife Mary Adams. Appleton's father was a church deacon, and Nathan was brought up in "strictest form of Calvinistic Congregationalism." He was...
, who gave the house to Longfellow as a wedding gift when Longfellow married Nathan's daughter Frances. He paid $10,000 for the home. Frances wrote to her brother Thomas Gold Appleton
Thomas Gold Appleton
Thomas Gold Appleton , son of merchant Nathan Appleton, was an American writer, an artist, and a patron of the fine arts...
on August 30, 1843: "We have decided to let Father purchase this grand old mansion", especially after Longfellow's friend George Washington Greene reminded them "how noble an inheritance this is — where Washington dwelt in every room". Longfellow was proud of the connection to Washington and in 1844 purchased a bust of the home's former occupant, a copy of the sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Jean-Antoine Houdon was a French neoclassical sculptor. Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment...
. Worcester and his wife became tenants under Longfellow in the western half of the house until their new home a few doors down was completed that spring. Mrs. Longfellow wrote on May 5, 1844, "Worcester family left us in complete possession [of the house], with rooms nicely cleaned, and uncarpeted stairs and entries".
Nathan Appleton also purchased the land across the street, as Longfellow's mother wrote, "so that their view of the River Charles
Charles River
The Charles River is an long river that flows in an overall northeasterly direction in eastern Massachusetts, USA. From its source in Hopkinton, the river travels through 22 cities and towns until reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston...
may not be intercepted". In all, Longfellow's gift included nine acres of land.
Longfellow lived in the house for the next four decades, producing many of his most famous poems including "Paul Revere's Ride
Paul Revere's Ride (poem)
"Paul Revere's Ride" is a poem by an American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that commemorates the actions of American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775.-Overview:...
" and "The Village Blacksmith
The Village Blacksmith
"The Village Blacksmith" is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in 1841. The poem describes a local blacksmith and his daily life. The blacksmith serves as a role model who balances his job with the role he plays with his family and community...
", as well as longer works such as Evangeline
Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.The idea for the poem came from...
, The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...
, and The Courtship of Miles Standish
The Courtship of Miles Standish
The Courtship of Miles Standish is an 1858 narrative poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the early days of Plymouth Colony, the colonial settlement established in America by the Mayflower Pilgrims.-Overview:...
. In all, while living in this house, Longfellow published eleven poetry collections, two novels, three epic poems, and several plays as well as a translation of Dante Alighieri's
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
Divine Comedy. Even as the poet's popularity increased, Longfellow and his wife most often referred to the home as "Craigie House" or "Craigie Castle".
Longfellow oversaw the creation of a formal garden and his wife oversaw decorating the interior. Mrs. Longfellow purchased several items from Tiffany's
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
in New York as well as $350 worth of carpets. They installed central heating in 1850 and gaslight in 1853. During their time in the house, the Longfellows hosted famous artists, writers, politicians and other luminaries who were attracted to Longfellow's hospitality and fame. Specific visitors included Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, singer Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
, and actress Fanny Kemble
Fanny Kemble
Frances Anne Kemble , was a famous British actress and author in the early and mid nineteenth century.-Youth and acting career:...
. Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil
Pedro II of Brazil
Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...
also visited the house privately and requested the company of Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat...
, and James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets...
. Mr. and Mrs. Longfellow also raised their three daughters and two sons in the home. Longfellow and his wife stayed in the home until their respective deaths but spent their summers after 1850 in Nahant, Massachusetts
Nahant, Massachusetts
Nahant is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,632 at the 2000 census. With just of land area, it is the smallest municipality by area in the state...
.
Longfellow often wrote in his first-floor study, formerly Washington's office, surrounded by portraits of his friends, including charcoal portraits by Eastman Johnson
Eastman Johnson
Eastman Johnson was an American painter, and Co-Founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance...
of Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
, and Cornelius Conway Felton
Cornelius Conway Felton
Cornelius Conway Felton was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University....
. Longfellow would write either at the center table, at the desk, or in the armchair by the fire.
Fanny Longfellow died in the home in July 1861 after her dress accidentally caught fire; her husband attempted to quell the flames, managing to keep her face from burning. Longfellow himself was burned on his own face and was scarred badly enough that he began growing a beard to hide it.
Preservation and current use
In 1962, the trust successfully lobbied for the house to become a national historic landmark. In 1972, the Trust donated the property to the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
and it became the Longfellow National Historic Site and open to the public as a house museum. On display are many of the original nineteenth century furnishings, artwork, over 10,000 books owned by Longfellow, and the dining table around which many important visitors gathered. Everything on display was owned by the Longfellow family. The site was renamed to Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site on December 22, 2010, to ensure that the connection to Washington was not lost in the memory of the general public.
The site also possesses some 750,000 original documents relevant to the former occupants of the home. These archives are open to scholarly research by appointment.
Across the street from the Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is the municipal park known as Longfellow Park. In the middle sits a memorial by sculptor Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...
dedicated in 1914. In addition to a bust of the poet, a carved bas-relief by Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon
Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. , which was his final project.- Education and early career :...
depicts the famous characters Miles Standish
The Courtship of Miles Standish
The Courtship of Miles Standish is an 1858 narrative poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about the early days of Plymouth Colony, the colonial settlement established in America by the Mayflower Pilgrims.-Overview:...
, Sandalphon
Sandalphon
Sandalphon is an archangel in Jewish and Christian writings. Sandalphon figures prominently in the mystical literary traditions of Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, notably in the Midrash, Talmud, and Kabbalah.-Origin:...
, the village blacksmith, the Spanish student, Evangeline
Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.The idea for the poem came from...
, and Hiawatha
Hiawatha
Hiawatha was a legendary Native American leader and founder of the Iroquois confederacy...
.
Architecture and landscape
The structure of the original house was built in the Georgian architecturalGeorgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
style. The pair of large pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s that frame the facade expressed John Vassall's aristocratic background. In 1791, Andrew Craigie added the two side piazzas and the two-story back ell and also expanded the library into a twenty by thirty foot ballroom with its own entrance. During the Longfellow family's time in the home, very few structural changes were made. As Frances Longfellow wrote, "we are full of plans & projects with no desire, however, to change a feature of the old countenance which Washington has rendered sacred".
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is noted for its garden on the northeast end of the property. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow oversaw the creation of the original garden, shaped as a lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
, shortly after his wedding. In 1845, he began refurbishing the garden in earnest and imported trees from England with help from Asa Gray
Asa Gray
-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....
. These trees included "a number of evergreens, among them a cedar of Lebanon and pines from the Himalayas, Norway, Switzerland and Oregon". The lyre shape proved impractical and a new design was made with the help of a landscape architect named Richard Dolben in 1847. The new design was a square surrounding a circle that was cut into four tear-shaped garden beds outlined by trimmed boxwood
Buxus
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood ....
. Mrs. Longfellow referred to the shape as a "Persian rug".
After her father's death in 1882, Alice Longfellow commissioned two of America's first female landscape architects, Martha Brookes Hutcheson
Martha Brookes Hutcheson
Martha Brookes Hutcheson was an American landscape architect, lecturer, and author, active in New England, New York, and New Jersey....
and Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman
Ellen Biddle Shipman was an American landscape architect known for her formal gardens and lush planting style.Born in Philadelphia, she spent her childhood in Texas and the Arizona territory. Her father, Colonel James Biddle, was a career Army officer, stationed on the western frontier...
, to redesign the formal garden in the Colonial Revival style. The garden was recently restored by an organization called Friends of the Longfellow House, which completed the final stage of its reconstruction, the historic pergola
Pergola
A pergola, arbor or arbour is a garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained...
, in 2008.
Replicas
Sears, Roebuck and Company
Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
sold scaled-down blueprints of the home so that anyone could build their own version of Longfellow's home. Several replicas of Longfellow's home appear throughout the United States. One replica, simply called Longfellow House
Longfellow House
The Longfellow House in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, is a 2/3 scale replica of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
, still exists in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
. Originally built by businessman Robert "Fish" Jones, it currently serves as an information center for the Minneapolis Park System and is on the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
Grand Rounds Scenic Byway
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway is a linked series of park areas in Minneapolis, Minnesota that takes a roughly circular path through the city. The corridors include roads for automobile traffic plus paths for pedestrians and bicycles, and extend slightly into neighboring cities...
.