Wadsworth-Longfellow House: Childhood Home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The brick building on Congress Street next to the Maine Historical Society looks like many old houses in Portland, but with one distinct difference: In the summer dining room of this house, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ((1807-1882)) penned the words “Into each life some rain must fall.” For this is the house in Portland where the poet lived until 1837, and the same house his family owned for more than 100 years.
Built in 1785-86 by Adjutant Gen. Peleg Wadsworth, the house was the first fully brick home to be built in Portland. Also unusual in this house are the chimneys set on the outer walls; many homes of the time had the chimney in the center. Setting the chimneys on the outer walls opened the central portion of the structure, and allowed a wide hall to run the depth of the house, all the way to the back door. For a family of 12 like the Wadsworths, having this much space was imperative.
The original house had two stories and a gabled roof when it was finished in 1786, and it remained this way until an 1814 fire in the kitchen chimney damaged the roof. The fire prompted Zilpah and Stephen Longfellow, Henry’s parents, to add a third story and seven additional rooms. The house has retained this same configuration since construction ended in 1815.
Beyond being the birthplace of Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow, the house is famous also for being the only single-family residence to survive the conversion of Congress Street from a mixed commercial/residential area on the edge of Portland to a business district. The house is also the oldest structure on the Portland peninsula.
Hourly guided tours will take visitors through the first two floors of the main house; the barn that used to be on the lot was replaced by the Maine Historical Society’s research library in 1907. Anne Longfellow Pierce, Henry’s younger sister and the last Longfellow to live in the house, made it a condition of her will that the historical society wasn’t allowed to add any buildings to the property except for the library. This library became a permanent home for MHS, which had been supported by the Longfellows since its founding in 1822.
The house is only open to the public from May 1 to October 31 each year; school tours are allowed starting from April 1, but only with prior reservations. Contact the Maine Historical Society for more details about scheduling a school tour. There is a strict limit of 12 to 15 people per tour group; the first tour leaves at 10:30 a.m. Monday to Saturday and at noon Sundays, with the last tour leaving at 4 p.m. each day.
The second floor of the house is not wheelchair accessible, but the historical society does offer a video tour for patrons not able to navigate the stairs.
HelloPortlandMaine Tip: Don’t neglect the Longfellow Garden behind the house if you have to wait for a tour to begin. Designed in 1924 by landscape architect Myron Lamb, the garden is a beautiful example of Colonial Revival style. The garden is free to the public and is open year-round.
Posted on Jan 19, 2011 by Matt Delman
