Person

Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr.

Studio portrait of man with large, shaped mustache in three-piece suit and tie, holding magazine.
Alexander W. Longfellow (1854-1934), by the photographer Marceau, about 1920.

Longfellow Family Photograph Collection (3007.3/2.4-#59)

Quick Facts
Significance:
Architect
Place of Birth:
Portland, Maine
Date of Birth:
August 18, 1854
Place of Death:
Portland, Maine
Date of Death:
February 16, 1934
Place of Burial:
Portland, Maine
Cemetery Name:
Evergreen Cemetery

Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. (1854-1934), known as "Waddy," was an American Romanesque and "shingle style" architect and a founder of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts.

Longfellow recieved a B.A. from Harvard in 1876 and that year entered a special architectural program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1879-1880 he continued his study of architecture in Paris. He worked in the office of Henry Hobson Richardson from 1882 to 1886, before establishing his own firm, from 1886 to 1896 working with parters Alfred Harlow and Frank Alden.

Longfellow's significant designs include:

  • Cambridge City Hall (1888)
  • Fay House, Radcliffe Yard (1890 remodeling, 1892 addition)
  • Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard (1898)
  • "Excelsior" Boston Elevated Railroad stations (1898)
  • Harvard Semitic Museum, now the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (1900)
  • Bertram Hall, Radcliffe College (1901)
  • Maine Historical Society Library, Portland, ME (1902)
  • Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum (1903)
  • Alterations for Craigie House, Cambridge, MA (1917)

Sources

Maureen Meister, "Phillips Brooks House", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—. Last accessed: March 10, 2021.

Maureen Meister, "Semitic Museum", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—,. Last accessed: March 10, 2021.

Maureen Meister, "Fay House, Radcliffe Yard", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—. Last accessed: March 10, 2021.

Margaret Welch, Finding Aid to the Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. (1854-1934) Papers, 1864-1979 (bulk dates: 1872-1934). LONG 35725. Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site.

Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site

Last updated: March 24, 2023