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When Peleg Wadsworth built his family home on Congress Street in 1786, he could see the Fore River from his front door. The city grew up around the structure as the Wadsworth-Longfellow family flourished and made history within its walls and the fabric of young America's culture and government. Peleg's daughter, Zilpah Wadsworth, married Stephen Longfellow IV on the first floor, and they raised their eight children in the home with love and high standards. Their second-eldest son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wrote his first childhood poem there before going on to pen great classics including Paul Revere's Ride and Evangeline. Young Henry watched his father help craft the Maine Constitution and experienced revolutionary ideals of his home city. Step inside the historic Longfellow House and explore the city that shaped a beloved American poet.
About the author
John Babin is the visitor services manager for the Wadsworth/Longfellow House in Portland, run by the Maine Historical Society. John has served as site coordinator and guide at the Wadsworth/Longfellow House, led the Longfellow's Childhood and Portland History walk on the Longfellow Trail for grades K-12 and guided Old Port Walking Tours' Portland History tour.
Portland native Allan Levinsky is the author of The Night Sky Turned Red, A Short History of Portland and At Home with the General. For seventeen years, he served as a guide for the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Home under the Maine Historical Society.
