The Longfellow House in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States, is a 2/3-scale replica of

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. Built in 1907, the house was neither seen nor lived in by Longfellow (who died in 1882), but was the home of an admiring Minneapolis businessman named Robert "Fish" Jones. Longfellow House stands within

Minnehaha Park Minnehaha Park is a city park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, and home to Minnehaha Falls and the lower reaches of Minnehaha Creek. Officially named Minnehaha Regional Park, it is part of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board ...

and is a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

to the Minnehaha Historic District.

Early history

In 1885, Robert "Fish" Jones sold his downtown Minneapolis fish market, and built a zoo on the site where the Basilica of St. Mary stands today. He eventually moved his zoo a few miles south into an area next to

Minnehaha Creek Minnehaha Creek () is a tributary of the Mississippi River that flows east from Gray's Bay Dam on Lake Minnetonka through the suburban cities of Minnetonka, Hopkins, Saint Louis Park, and Edina, and the city of Minneapolis. The creek flows o ...

. He rebuilt his zoo, the Longfellow Zoological Gardens, and opened it in 1907. At the same time, he built a house for himself, styled after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's home. A yellow frame house with porches at each end, he lived there for the next 23 years until he closed the zoo, due to complaints from nearby residents. He agreed to give the house to the City of Minneapolis, but died in 1930 before the transaction was completed.

Longfellow Community Library

For four years after Jones' death, the house remained vacant, following which the Park Board was deeded the house, offering it to the

Minneapolis Public Library The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) was a library system that served the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1885 with the establishment of the Minneapolis Library Board by an amendment to the Minneapolis City ...

. The library purchased it for $1,500, $500 of which was raised by neighbourhood residents. The

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

converted the house into the Longfellow Community Library, which opened in 1937. The library performed well, serving the south easternmost portion of Minneapolis until the 1950s, when the growing prevalence of television cut circulation numbers at the library in half. The demographic that fell the most during that time was not children, but adults. The library overcame this circulation drop, so much so that in 1967 the Library Board authorized the construction of a new library in the nearby Wenonah neighborhood. In 1968, Longfellow closed and

Nokomis Community Library Nokomis Library, formerly Nokomis Community Library, is a branch library serving the Nokomis East area of Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of 41 libraries in the Hennepin County Library system, Nokomis was designed by Buetow and Associates, Inc an ...

opened, instantly doubling Longfellow's circulation numbers.

The House today

The House fell into disrepair. During the early 1980s, it was used by the March of Dimes and Minneapolis

Jaycees The United States Junior Chamber, also known as the Jaycees, JCs or JCI USA, is a leadership training service organization and civic organization for people between the ages of 18 and 40. It is a branch of Junior Chamber International (JCI). A ...

as "Ghost Manor", a haunted house attraction every year at Halloween. In 1994, the expansion of

Hiawatha Avenue Minnesota State Highway 55 (MN 55) is a state highway that runs across the central part of state taking a diagonal route from its western most at the North Dakota state line near Tenney to its easternmost point at the intersection with U.S. H ...

was underway, the House was moved to its current location. In a partnership with the

Minnesota Department of Transportation The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT, ) oversees Transportation in Minnesota, transportation by all modes including land, water, air, rail, walking and bicycling in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Cabinet (government), cabinet-lev ...

, the house was moved across the highway by Ernst Movers of

Osseo, Minnesota Osseo ( ) is a small city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, it has a population of 2,688. Etymology It is said that "Osseo" derives from the Ojibwe name ''"Waaseyaa"'' meaning "There is light", ...

and thus reconnected with Minnehaha Park which the house had been separated from. It was then renovated by the Kodet Architectural Group. The moving process won the Department of Transportation an honorable mention by the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

in the historic preservation category. In 2001, the house opened as an interpretive information center, run by the Park Board.

References

External links

Longfellow House
at Placeography
Longfellow House
at the

Hennepin County Library Hennepin County Library is a public library system serving Hennepin County, Minnesota, US. The current iteration of Hennepin County Library was formed by the merger of urban Minneapolis Public Library and suburban Hennepin County Library on ...

Longfellow House
at the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Educational institution, educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the Minnesota Terr ...

{{Mississippi National River and Recreation Area 1907 establishments in Minnesota Historic district contributing properties in Minnesota Houses completed in 1907 Houses in Minneapolis Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Minneapolis Public Library National Register of Historic Places in Minneapolis National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Works Progress Administration in Minnesota