Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
- Year
- 1759
- Style
- Georgian
- City
- Boston, MA
- Collection
- colonial & revolutionary
The Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site at 105 Brattle Street in Cambridge was built in 1759 for John Vassall Jr., a Jamaican plantation owner who fled the property in 1775 rather than renounce his loyalty to the king. General George Washington took over the house as his headquarters that July, running the Siege of Boston from it until April 1776. It later became the home of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for nearly 50 years, giving one Georgian house two very different chapters of American history.
the building
Washington's headquarters. Washington occupied the house starting July 16, 1775, using it as his base of operations through the Siege of Boston until he moved out on April 4, 1776.
Craigie's addition. Andrew Craigie, Washington's Apothecary General, bought the house in 1791 and carried out its only major addition. After his death in 1819 left the estate in debt, his widow Elizabeth began taking in boarders — one of whom was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
the style
The house is a Georgian-style mansion dating to 1759, built for a wealthy Loyalist family in the years just before the Revolution scattered them from Cambridge.
More on Georgiansignificance
The site is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Until December 2010 it was known as the Longfellow National Historic Site; it is also called the Vassall-Craigie-Longfellow House, reflecting its long chain of notable owners.
nearby
- Oliver Hastings House
- Mary Fiske Stoughton House
- Edwin Abbot House
- William Dean Howells House
- Building at 10 Follen Street
- Grace Hopkinson Eliot Hall