At 489 Congress Street, the Wadsworth-Longfellow House is the oldest surviving structure on the Portland peninsula and a museum run by the Maine Historical Society. This brick house, built between 1785 and 1786 by American Revolutionary War General Peleg Wadsworth, was the first wholly brick dwelling in Portland. Wadsworth raised ten children here in the two-story structure before retiring to the family farm in Hiram, Maine, in 1807. His daughter Zilpah married Stephen Longfellow IV in this house; their son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), grew up with this house as part of his childhood and was born nearby at the home of an aunt on February 27, 1807.
The building is recognized for both history and literature: it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The house today is a three-story Federal architecture–style home and is open daily to the public from May through October (half days on Sundays); an admission fee is charged.
Ten children grew up in these brick rooms, and the street and buildings that frame this corner of Congress Street still hold that family story.