Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Beagan C. 2025. Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650033. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Longfellow House - Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site is located at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The 1.98-acre property is on the northern side of the street, facing Longfellow Memorial Park (city of Cambridge) and the Charles River beyond. Buildings on the site include the main Georgian-style house, constructed in 1759, and a carriage house, constructed in 1844. The house served as the home of General George Washington in 1775-76, during the American Revolution, and was the home of noted poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from 1837 until his death in 1882. Set in a residential district, the property once encompassed a large agricultural estate with commanding views of the Charles River. Today, the property is diminished in size, but retains a limited view of the Charles River. The landscape at Longfellow House - Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site is characterized as a designed residential landscape in the Colonial and Federal styles, with later Colonial Revival improvements. The house front features distinctive terracing, punctuated with a wooden balustrade and an elm-lined forecourt set amongst lawns and paths. A carriage drive leads to the carriage house at the rear, with a drop-off loop at the side entrance to the Longfellow house. The carriage drive also defines the historic laundry yard. A large European linden stands in the east lawn toward the rear of the house, where an enclosed Colonial Revival style formal garden remains on the footprint of an original, 1847 garden design. The formal garden was renovated by Alice Longfellow to its current layout in 1904-05 and 1925. In 2005-06, the garden was restored based on historical documentation, largely from the earlier 1925 rehabilitation by noted landscape architect Ellen Shipman.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Beagan, Chris
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- LONG
- Keywords
- Architecture, Colonial Revival Landscape Design, Craigie House, Craigie-Longfellow House, Designed Landscape, Expressing Cultural Values, Georgian (1730-1780), Historic Site, Landscape Architecture, Leisure-Passive (Park), Literature, Longfellow House, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, Longfellow National Historic Site, Military, Military Facility (Post), Multiple Dwelling-Other, Museum (Exhibition Hall)-Other, Poetry, Shaping the Political Landscape, Single Family House, The American Revolution, Vassall House, Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, War in the North Literature, Washington’s Headquarters