Wadsworth-Longfellow House – Portland Maine
Here is a photo from one of our visits to Portland, Maine, standing in front of the Longfellow House. Sitting right on Congress Street, in the middle of downtown life. is this Wadsworth-Longfellow House, the oldest surviving structure on the Portland peninsula. It was built in 1785-1786 by General Peleg Wadsworth, a Revolutionary War hero and grandfather of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America’s most beloved poets. Longfellow was born here in 1807 and spent his childhood within these walls.
Originally constructed as a two-story brick home, the house gained its distinctive third floor after a chimney fire in 1815 required rebuilding. The home remained in the Longfellow family for more than a century which ensured many of the original furnishings and personal objects survived intact.
The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, recognizing not only its architectural importance but also its role in shaping one of the country’s most influential literary figures. Today, the house is owned and operated by the Maine Historical Society
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Codman Estate – Lincoln, Massachusetts
The Codman House in Lincoln, known as The Grange, stands as one of the most elegant and layered historic homes in Massachusetts, and is another home that we have visited often. There is something about returning to a place like this that deepens appreciation with each visit. Build around 1747, and later expanded, the house […]
Gould House – Jay Gould’s Lynhurst – Tarrytown, New York
I visited the Gould House, known as the Lyndhurst Mansion with Marty. Perched high above the Hudson River in Tarrytown NY, the limestone mansion looks like a story book home with turrets and spires. Lyndhurst is one of the finest examples of the Gothic Revival style in America. When Jay Gould, the railroad tycoon, and […]
Fruitlands Farmhouse – Harvard, Massachusetts
The farmhouse at Fruitlands is a house that we visited often. When my daughters were volunteering at the Orchard House in Concord, the farmhouse at Fruitlands helped fill in another part of the story of the Alcott Family. It was here that Bronson Alcot attempted to create and intentional community based on transcendentalist ideals. In […]
