Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Portland

A look at the beloved American poet’s home and family, and a glimpse at the early years of Portland, Maine. When a former Revolutionary War general named Peleg Wadsworth finished building a two-story brick house on Congress Street in 1786, the “province of Maine” was still considered part of Massachusetts, and he could see the Fore River from his front door. The city would grow up around the structure, as the Wadsworth-Longfellow family flourished and made history within its walls—and in the fab