E-mail page
|
|
|
|
Longfellow National Historic Site Review
Read our Boston sights reviews. Or post your own.
Longfellow National Historic Site
Houses / Mansions, Cambridge
Fodor's Review:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the poet whose stirring tales of the Village Blacksmith, Evangeline, Hiawatha, and Paul Revere's midnight ride thrilled 19th-century America, once lived in this elegant mansion. If there's one historic house to visit in Cambridge, this is it. The house was built in 1759 by John Vassall Jr., and is one of the seven original Tory Row homes on Brattle Street; George Washington lived here during the Siege of Boston from July 1775 to April 1776. Longfellow first boarded here in 1837, and later received the house as a gift from his father-in-law on his marriage to Frances Appleton, who burned to death here in an accident in 1861. For 45 years Longfellow wrote his famous verses here and filled the house with the exuberant spirit of his own work and that of his literary circle, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator. Upon his death, the poet left the house in trust to his descendants, and every aspect of the house -- from the wallpaper to the books on his shelves -- has been preserved for future generations. Longfellow Park, across the street, is the place to stand to take photos of Longfellow's house. The park was created to preserve the view immortalized in the poet's "To the River Charles."
INFO
- Address: 105 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA
- Phone: 617/876-4491
- Web site
- Cost: $3
- Open: Tours June-Oct., Wed.-Sun. 10:30-4
- Metro: Harvard
WHAT'S NEARBY
- Restaurants
- All Star Sandwich Bar
- Baraka Café
- More >>
- Entertainment
- 1369 Coffeehouse
- American Repertory
- More >>
- Shopping
- Abodeon
- Barefoot Books
- More >>
- Boston in a day and a half
15 responses; most recent on 09/04/2008, 05:15 pm - Boston - October and Fall Help!
5 responses; most recent on 09/04/2008, 02:57 pm
Visit the Travel Talk forums for help on planning your trip
- Family Adventure Travel Who says family vacations are boring? Moms and dads ...
- Top Chef Travels: Ming Tsai At age 43, Ming Tsai has made a name for himself as...
- Business Travelers' Top Travel Tips Road warriors reveal the tricks of the business travel...
- more >>
