Across the street from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s House on Brattle Street is a 2-acre park extending down to the Charles River, established in memory of the great poet. The park includes an open lawn area off of Brattle Street bounded by several residences as well as the Friends Meeting House of Cambridge and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and descends to a lower garden and memorial on Mt. Auburn Street.
Soon after Longfellow’s passing in 1882, a group of his colleagues organized an association to create a memorial in his honor and formed the Longfellow Memorial Association. The Association sought to erect a monument and create a public park to be given to the City of Cambridge. Longfellow’s children donated two acres, consisting of the central portion of a meadow, in 1883. This donation of land came with a plan illustrating their desire for an open grass area to preserve the view of the river from the house, and a monument located in the northern section of the park. A horseshoe-shaped road was proposed to provide access to subdivided lots planned by the Longfellows.
Maintaining the open meadow was a concern by all involved in the park. As Longfellow’s son, Ernest, wrote:
“Such a breathing space on the river in connection with the playing fields of
the College, which my father was so instrumental in securing, will one day
be a great boon to Cambridge when it becomes crowded, and would be a
better monument to my father and more in harmony than any graven image
that could be erected.”
In 1887, Charles Eliot, a landscape architect who apprenticed with Frederick Law Olmsted, was commissioned to design the park. He envisioned a park with two distinct areas, an expanse of lawn surrounded by the horseshoe-shaped road and walks, and a garden in the lowland with paths and a playground. To mitigate poor drainage, Eliot recommended the upland be used to fill the area and create a brook. He also included shrubs to screen traffic on Mt. Auburn Street, and trees along the edges of the garden. Between the garden and the green, Eliot proposed an exedra, a semi-circular recessed seating area, facing south and on axis with the front door of Longfellow’s house. A proposed walk would lead to the highest point on the site, ending in a terrace and a set of stairs. Only a few elements of Eliot’s design were actually executed. Changes included a large stone stair case instead of the exedra, and fewer shrubs were installed. In addition, trees were not planted on the edges, and the brook was not created.
The design of the monument was given to the sculptor Daniel French. The siting of the statue was debated between the heirs who wanted it closer to Brattle Street, and the Association who agreed with Eliot’s original recommendation. The dispute was settled by Frederick Olmsted, Jr. who concurred with Eliot’s idea. Olmsted Jr. also recommended that the design of the monument integrate and redesign the existing steps. The staircase was replaced by a stone retaining wall, designed by the architect Henry Bacon, which forms the base of the sculpture. Two sets of stairs flank the wall, and at the base of the sculpture was a sunken memorial garden designed by Paul Frost.
After 1914, pathways were repaved in concrete and narrowed. Houses and institutions were built around the park. In the 1930s and 1940s, several WPA projects repaired the drive and walkways, and planted shrubs and trees in the garden. Lighting was also installed during this time. By the 1970s, a mature canopy of trees had grown in the garden. In 1989, Carol R. Johnson and Associates was hired to address the deterioration of the lower park. Some trees were removed and re-planted, and others were pruned. The lawn was restored, and the area was regraded for erosion control. Granite cobbles were installed at the south gate, and stone dust paving was placed at the base of the monument.
Sources
Evans, Catherine, Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site, Volume I: Site History and Existing Conditions, National Park Service, 1993.
Osterby-Benson, Krisan, “Longfellow Park, A Room With A View,” May, 1983.
Maycock, Susan, and Charles Sullivan, Building Old Cambridge, MIT Press, 2016.
