News Release

National Park Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Welcome 74 New U.S. Citizens at Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site

NPS/Sam DiMatteo

News Release Date: October 12, 2023

Contact: Chris Beagan, 617-876-4481

Cambridge, MA – On the morning of October 5, seventy-four people from forty-two countries became the United States’ newest citizens on the east lawn of Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site.

“Over the past 264 years, the occupants of this historic house have shaped our nation through their words and actions,” said Jason Newman, superintendent of Frederick Law Olmsted, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Sites, in his congratulatory remarks. “Today we invite you into this long tradition, and we are humbled to think of the ways in which you, the newest Americans, will shape this nation for generations to come.”

Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site preserves a remarkable Georgian house whose occupants shaped our nation. It was a site of colonial enslavement and community activism, George Washington’s first long-term headquarters of the American Revolution, and the place where poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his canon of 19th-century American literature.

The naturalization ceremony was the second hosted by the National Park Service at Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, in partnership with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson presided. The U.S.S. Constitution Honor Guard presented the colors, and music was donated by Juventas New Music Ensemble, with performances by pianist Melanie Rucinski and soprano Maggie Finnegan.

The 74 candidates came from the following 42 countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chad, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Liberia, Lithuania, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Since 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the National Park Service have partnered to host naturalization ceremonies at nationally significant parks, monuments, and historic sites. The 425 units of the National Park System across the U.S. and its territories represent a shared heritage for all Americans and are powerful sites to celebrate the conclusion of an immigrant’s journey to citizenship and honor the commitment they’ve shown along the way.“John Muir, one of the key figures in the founding of the National Park Service, was himself a naturalized U.S. citizen,” observed Superintendent Newman. “Today you join the many generations of Americans who have looked to our collective past, our diverse cultures, and our belief in the enduring promise of liberty to build a shared future.”