Longfellow National Historic Site

The Longfellow National Historic Site, also known as the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, is a historic site located at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was for almost fifty years the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Related Topics:
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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The mid-Georgian house was built in 1759 for Royalist John Vassall who made it his summer residence with his wife Elizabeth (Oliver) and children until 1774. On the eve of the American Revolution, they fled Boston. Colonel John Glover and the Marblehead Regiment occupied the house as their temporary barracks in June 1775, followed by General George Washington, Commander-in-Chief of the newly-formed Continental Army, who headquartered and planned the Siege of Boston in the house between July, 1775 and April, 1776.

Related Topics:
Marblehead Regiment - George Washington - Continental Army

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Nathaniel Tracy, who had made a great fortune as one of the earliest and most successful privateers under Washington, owned the house from 1781-1786, after which he went bankrupt and sold the house to Thomas Russell, a wealthy Boston merchant who in turn occupied it until 1791.

Related Topics:
Nathaniel Tracy - Thomas Russell

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Andrew and Elizabeth Craigie owned the house from 1791-1819. Craigie was the first Apothecary General of the United States, in charge of medical services at the battles of Bunker Hill, Cambridge, Germantown and Valley Forge. Craigie died in 1819, leaving his wife in great debt. Accordingly, Mrs. Craigie took in boarders until her death in 1841.

Related Topics:
Andrew and Elizabeth Craigie - Apothecary General - Bunker Hill - Valley Forge

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Longfellow first rented rooms in the house from Mrs. Craigie. After her death, however, the house passed to Nathan Appleton, who later gave the house to Longfellow as a wedding gift when Longfellow married Nathan's daughter, Frances. Longfellow lived in the house until his death in 1882. The house became a national historic landmark in 1962 and a national historic site in 1972.

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