Show ab fish in 0 W hn r h poet pomet ounce liv L nd homes in old new england intimately ti connected with life of longfellow cambridge mass the three tine fine old now england houses which are th in ornately connected with tho the life ike ot of henry Wada wadsworth worth longfellow should not bo be forgotten at this time when bowdoin Ilow doln college his alma mater Is planning a centenary institute in 1925 to celebrate its share in making possible sible tho the work of americas most popular poet and that of tits his classmate nathaniel hawthorne house on brattle street cambridge the picturesque and ly revolutionary mansion to which longfellow came in 1837 ns as n R young professor and where he lived for many years Is best known of the three with the House of seven gables find and the old manse alone it shares the honors among historic new england houses two shrines in portland portland me claims tile tho other two longfellow shrines first comes his birthplace a square three storied house on the corner of fore and hallcock streets in its lay day it ii was a fine house the homo home of copt capt samuel stephenson Step honson in those days only the doorway the street and a little beach lay between it and the water but tor for CO 60 or more years now it has haa fallen upon hard bard times tho the poets parents were spending the winter in this house visiting tits his bount mrs stephenson when lie he was born on february 27 1807 A little more than a year afterward they moved to the third house which Is today known ns as a longfellow house there in the old wadsworth homo home on congress street the poet spent tits his childhood and youth perhaps the two houses are arc not often confused as the they y were in tile monitor on september 1 when a photograph of the lie congress street house was described as hla hill birthplace there ls Is no quest question lon about it tho the honor bonor belongs to tile the less well known house on fore street but bui the interest still centers on the congress street house for it Is bound up with memories all have shared by reading the rainy day my lost youth and other poems Long fellows boyhood home the congress street house in long fellows fell aws boyhood was not in the heart of the business district as it Is now but on the outskirts of the town in the midst of the fields from the windows of tile boys room ono one could look then over the cove and the farms and the woodlands toward mt alt washington from the e eastern chambers the view was unobstructed across the bay to white fort and the lighthouse on cape hl elizabeth alizabeth happy days were spent there with music and books and brother and sister bister nearby were deering woods where the poet tramped and bathed and dreamed the woods have been preserved as aa a city park and tile tho house has been defur dished as aa nearly as possible as it was a little moro more than years ago ani ami Is now open to tile the public as a museum it Is perhaps well that the three longfellow houses bouses should have different destinies the birthplace in other hands the boyhood home a museum and the cambridge house still in pos of the family faintly |