Show K ous in 0 n eliida wh ch poet i once lived homes in old new england intimately ti connected with life of longfellow cambridge mass blass the three fine old new england houses which are intimately ti connected with the life of henry wadsworth longfellow should not be forgotten at this time when bowdoin college his alma mater Is planning a centenary institute in 1923 1925 to celebrate its share in making possible the work of americas most popular poet and that of his classmate nathaniel hawthorne crangle house on brattle street cambridge the picturesque and stately revolutionary mansion to which longfellow came in 1837 as a young professor and v here he lived for many years Is best known of the three with the house of seven gables and the old manse alone it shares the honors among historic new england houses two shrines in portland portland me claims the other two longfellow shrines first comes his birthplace a square three storied house on the corner of fore and hancock streets in its day it was a flue fine house the home of capt samuel stephenson in those days only the doorway the street and a little beach lay between it and the water but for 50 or more years now it has haa fallen upon hard times the water has receded and buildings have sprung up hemming it in on all sides the poets parents were spending the winter in this house visiting his aunt mrs stephenson when he be was born on february 27 1807 A little more than a year afterward they moved to the third house which Is today known as a longfellow house there in the old wadsworth home on congress streets street the poet spent his childhood and youth perhaps the two houses are not often confused as they were in the monitor on september 1 when hen a photograph of the congress street house was described as his birthplace there Is no question about it the honor belongs to the less well known house on fore street but the I 1 interest 13 terest 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 Horn the congress street hou house se in aLong long fellows 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 the boys room one could look then over the cove and the farms and the woodlands toward mt bit washington from the eastern chambers the view was unobstructed across the bay to white head fort preble and the lighthouse on cape elizabeth happy days were spent there with music and books and brother and sister nearby were deering woods where rethe the poet tramped find and bathed and dreamed the woods have been preserved as a city park and the house has been b een defur ref ur dished as nearly as possible as it was a little more than years ago and is now open to the public as a museum it Is perhaps well that the three longfellow houses should have different destinies the birthplace in other hands the boyhood home a museum and the cambridge house bouse still la in pos of the family |