The Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House is a colonial mansion that was built in 1759 by a wealthy loyalist by the name of John Vassall in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When news about the Revolutionary War began circulating, Vassall fled his home in Cambridge to a new estate in Boston. During the Revolutionary War, his mansion served as both a headquarters and a hospital for George Washington and his men (“Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow”). Washington lived in the house from 1775 until 1776 during the Siege of Boston. After the war, Andrew Craigie, a land speculator from Cambridge, acquired the house and lived there with his wife. During their stay in the house, they rented out a few of its rooms to local Harvard students, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow being one of them. After the Craigie’s passed, the house was handed down to Nathan Appleton, whose daughter, Frances Appleton, became Longfellow’s wife in 1843 (“Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow”). Following their marriage, Nathan Appleton gifted the house to the newlyweds where Longfellow resided until his death in 1882. Today, the house is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Site, due to its ties to American history and its influential Georgian architecture that has shaped other architectural styles following the Revolutionary War (“Longfellow”).

Since Longfellow resided in this house for the majority of his life, it remains the birthplace of many of his famous poems, including the “The Village Blacksmith” and “Paul Revere’s Ride,” in addition to a few novels, plays, and epic poems (“Henry”). Some may argue that living in a house filled with so much American history, one that even played a large role in the revolution, could have sparked Longfellow’s inspiration for writing such an American nationalist poem as “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Nevertheless, learning about the history of his home and about the timeline of historical events that were occurring at the time in which he was writing, gives insight into what could have influenced his writing perspective.

Works Cited

“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 19 Jan. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Wadsworth-Longfellow.

“Longfellow House.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/places/longfellow-house-washingtons-headquarters.htm. Accessed 13 Feb. 2024.

“Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House.” SAH Archipedia, 17 June 2019, sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BS7.