County of site: Cumberland County
Location of house: Congress St., between Preble St & Brown St., Portland
Site #18 on the Irish Heritage Trail
Phone: (207) 774-1822
Marker Text:
Wadsworth - Longfellow House
built 1785 - 1786
Open Seasonally for Tours
Built by Peleg Wadsworth in 1785-1786, this is the boyhood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Three generations of the Wadsworth and Longfellow families lived in the home until 1901, when Anne Longfellow Pierce, the port's sister, bequeathed the residence to the Maine Historical Society. It opened to the public that years as Maine's first -- and one of America's earliest -- house museums.
The Wadsworth-Longfellow House was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 29, 1962.
Information and Tickets Available at
Maine Historical Society Museum,
489 Congress St.
MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
"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 (1807–1882).
"American Revolutionary War General Peleg Wadsworth built the house in 1785–1786, the first wholly brick dwelling in Portland. 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, Stephen's sister, on February 27, 1807. The home was a three-story Federal architecture-style home at the corner of Fore and Hancock Streets. Young Longfellow did not move with his parents to the Wadsworth-Longfellow House until he was eight months old, but spent the next 35 years there. The Longfellows added today's third story in 1815." ~ Wikipedia
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