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Longfellow House, Cambridge MA |
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Although the house was built by Major John Vassall in 1759, and was for a time Washington's headquarters (he and Martha celebrated their 17th wedding anniversary here), most of the furnishings are left from the time of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who lived here for 45 years. |
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Those interested in 18th-century American Revolutionary War history and the 19th-century Cambridge literary scene will want to visit the Longfellow House at 105 Brattle Street, which is now a National Historic Site. Mrs Andrew Craigie took in boarders (mostly Harvard professors), and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one, starting in 1837. Soon after he and Fanny Appleton were married, Fanny's father bought the house for the young married couple, and the poet lived here until his death in 1882. Virtually all of his belongings and furnishings are still here, as he left them when he died, for the house was occupied by his descendants until the early 1970s. It's an elegant and beautiful house, and yet still warm and homey, a treat to walk through. The National Park Service guides who take you through are friendly and knowledgeable. Longfellow House sponsors concerts every two weeks on Sunday afternoons in summer, on the lawn, free, and open to the public. From Brattle Square (a few steps from Harvard Square), take Brattle Street, and after about five blocks look for the big yellow house on the right-hand side. Longfellow House
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Longfellow House, George Washington's headquarters and Henry and Fanny Longfellow's home, in Cambridge MA.
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