Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
| Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||
|
|||
| Location: | Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Specialty: | Memorial to the writer Henry W. Longfellow and the Siege of Boston in the American Revolutionary War | ||
| Next city: | Cambridge | ||
| Surface: | 8000 m² | ||
| Founding: | October 15, 1966 | ||
| Visitors: | 45,684 (2010) | ||
_location_map.svg)
The Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is a memorial in Cambridge , Massachusetts , which commemorates both the siege of Boston in the American Revolutionary War and the poet Henry W. Longfellow . The building served as headquarters during the siege of George Washington in 1775/76 and was inhabited by Henry W. Longfellow from 1837 until his death in 1882, who wrote most of his work during this time. It is now designated as a National Historic Site .
description
The two-and-a-half-story building with a double hipped roof was built for John Vassall in 1759. The unknown architect probably oriented himself to Palladianism by means of a classic manual , which in turn refers to the Renaissance and antiquity as part of Classicism . The five-axis main facade has a small architrave above the door, a triangular gable in the central axis and four mighty pilasters in the Ionic style . The proportions of the room division approach the classic ratio of 2: 1: 2, i.e. two rooms on either side of the central entrance hall, but several walls deviate from this for no explainable reason. There are four main rooms per floor. With the hall, ancillary rooms and the rooms on the top floor, the house has a total of 18 rooms.
The implementation is considered rough and imprecise. The chimney on the left is not perpendicular, several walls of the entrance hall, which contains two staircases, are crooked, the floor and the paneling of the dining room are clearly uneven. The distribution of windows, balustrades and pillars show the architect no understanding of the classic models. The overall impression is described by an architecture critic as "decorative and fashionable in the style of the time, but neither uniform, nor impressive or particularly elegant".
Nevertheless, the building was extraordinarily lavish for the time and the many large and expensive windows in particular contributed to the spacious and light-flooded impression. Therefore, the building became a style defining feature for colonial architecture in North America and especially for the North American variants of the Georgian style . The architecture of the building is one of the most widely copied in the United States.
history
The house was built for John Vassall on a much larger plot of land, originally 30 acres, outside the city of Boston on the hillside over the Charles River . With six other properties in the immediate vicinity, it formed part of Cambridge, which was called Tory Row because of the loyalist spirit of its owners . Vassall was a wealthy merchant, a major in the local militia, and the son of a MP in the General Court of Massachusetts, the then legislature.
When Vassall was expelled as part of the revolution as a supporter of the British crown in September 1774, first to Boston and in 1776 from the British colony of Massachusetts to Canada, the house was confiscated by the revolutionaries and after the battles of Lexington and Concord and the battle of Bunker Hill briefly used as an army hospital. It then served Colonel John Glover and then from July 1775 to April 1776 of the Patriotic Continental Army under the later first US President George Washington as headquarters.
In the 1790s, Andrew Craigie, a former officer in the Washington Army and later a manufacturer and wholesaler of medical equipment and supplies, purchased the building. He expanded the building and designed the garden so lavishly and generously in the taste of the time that the house subsequently became known as Craigie Castle . His expenses on the building are believed to be the main reason for his indebtedness, which caused his company to run into trouble. After his death in 1819, the property was divided up and the separated property was built with his own houses and sold. His widow took tenants into the house until her death in 1841.
Henry Longfellow, Professor of Literature at Harvard University, came to the house as one of the tenants in 1837. In 1843 he married Frances Appleton, called Fanny, from a wealthy family whose father, businessman and politician Nathan Appleton , bought the house and a second garden / park property across the street on the riverside and gave it to his daughter as a wedding present. The Longfellows were fascinated by the history of the house and felt obliged to preserve its structure and the preserved parts of the furnishings. This desire was reinforced as the property environment slowly evolved from rural to suburban. The family tradition continued this idea of largely preserving the original condition, so that the house remained known as Craigie House until the 20th century . After Longfellow's death in 1888, his heirs further divided the property and built their own houses. This is how the property boundary of today's memorial was created. Longfellow's eldest daughter Alice lived in and kept the main house until her death in 1928.
In 1913 the house and property were transferred to a foundation. Longfellow House was a National Historic Landmark on December 29, 1962, added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 , and on October 9, 1972, by resolution of Congress, it was given as a gift from the Longfellow Foundation to the federal government and the National Park Service as well as established as a national memorial Longfellow National Historic Site. To honor the special role the house played during the War of Independence, the memorial was renamed in 2010 to the current name Longfellow House – Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site . The program of exhibitions and tours had for some time taken into account both Longfellow and his work, as well as Washington's coexistence.
There are several important collections in the house, including Longfellow's historic library with over 12,000 books and the largely preserved furniture, works of art and items belonging to a prominent and wealthy New England family in the 19th century. These include a collection of rare photos that Henry Longfellow's son Charles Longfellow took on a long journey from 1871 to 1873 as one of the first western visitors to China and Japan.
The house and memorial have a spacious garden that is freely accessible to the public during the day.
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
- List of entries on the National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge
literature
- Catherine Evans: Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site , National Park Service, 1993 (also online: Cultural Landscape Report ; PDF; 3.8 MB)
- John Luzader: Historic Structure Report - Longfellow House , National Park Service, 1974 (also online: Historic Structure Report ; PDF; 1.2 MB)
Web links
- National Park Service: Longfellow House – Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site (official site; English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the description of the building is based on the 1974 Historic Structure Report.
- ↑ a b Historic American Buildings Survey: Longfellow National Historic Site (PDF; 240 MB), January 1968.
- ^ Finding Aid. (PDF 401 KB) Longfellow House Trust (1913–1974) Records, 1852–1973. In: Collection Catalog Number: LONG 16174. Longfellow National Historic Site, September 2006, p. 18 , accessed June 21, 2011 (English, 3rd edition).
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the history of the house is based on the 1993 Cultural Landscape Report.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 11, 2019.
- ↑ according to the National Register of Historic Places of the National Park Service
- ^ Longfellow National Historic Site Staff: Comprehensive Interpretive Plan. (PDF, 583 kB) Longfellow National Historic Site. National Park Service, December 2004, p. 9 , accessed June 30, 2011 .