OCR Text |
Show HISTORIC HOME. Old Longfellow Mansion Thrown Open to the Public. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow loved youth as few great men have loved it, says Stephen Cammett. in the Century. The struggles of the formative period of genius, which to many famous men embitter their early years, had no place in the peaceful boyhood-that the poet passed in the quiet New England tewn of Portland. Youth to Longfellow Longfel-low was the happy time of which he dreamed throughout his later years, every association of which he sought earnestly, almost passionately, to recall. re-call. He returned again and again to the old Portland home, to stroll in Deering's woods and other youthful haunts, striving to experience once more the summer delights of his boyhood boy-hood vacations at Wadsworth Hall, embodying his vague longings in the verses of "My Lost Youth." The early associations of Longfellow are many and well preserved. They cluster about the old lngfellow mansion man-sion and the Longfellow birthplace in the city of Portland, Me., and Wadsworth Wads-worth Hall, the "grandfather's farm" of the poet's boyish days. Every piece of furniture in the Longfellow home, every ornament, was a personal possession. pos-session. The arrangement of every apartment is today exactly as the poet knew it in his youth. The desk upon which he wrote, the armchair by his favorite window, the study all speak to us of a presence which is here made real. L'p.m the death of Anne Longfellow Pierce the Maine Historical society became be-came trustee of the property, and its doors have been open to the ' public. The house is of rod brick, three stories in height, set a little back from the street and dwarfed by the larger buildings build-ings which surround it. Through the broad ball the visitor has a glimpse of the garden at the farther end, tall! elms, shrubbery and trailing vines. |