Longfellow's Home, Cambridge, Mass.

Creator

Keystone View Company

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Creation Date

1905

Description

This slide depicts the historic Longfellow House, which was home to many famous figures in American history. The house was built in 1759 by the Jamaican plantation owner John Vassall Jr, who abandoned the building at the start of the Revolutionary War. During the Revolutionary War, the home served as a living space and headquarters for General George Washington as he attempted to create a unified Continental Army. He lived there for several months before leaving to pursue the war effort and settling elsewhere after the war. Following the war, the next person to inhabit the house was Andrew Craigie, a Revolutionary War veteran and apothecary who bought the house as a real estate investment, putting his family in debt so he could restore the house. Andrew Craigie owned the house until his death in 1819, leaving it in the care of his widow Elizabeth Craigie, who rented the house to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his family. The house would see the creation of numerous famous works by Longfellow, as well as the tragic death of Longfellow’s wife. Since Longfellow’s death in 1882, the house has been preserved by Longfellow’s children until 1913 when they created the Longfellow House Trust to continue preserving it in their stead until it was later donated to the National Park Service in 1973.

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