The Longfellow House in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, 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 "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. 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 Robert Fremont "Fish" Jones (?–1930) was a Minneapolis, Minnesota businessman and showman. His prominence led to him driving Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman down Nicollet Avenue (later Nicollet Mall) in downtown Minneapolis for the ...

. 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 syst ...

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 distri ...

to the Minnehaha Park 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 the

Minnehaha Creek Minnehaha Creek ( dak, Mniȟáȟa Wakpádaŋ) is a 22-mile-long (35 km) 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 Edin ...

. He rebuilt his zoo, the

Longfellow Zoological Gardens The Longfellow Zoological Gardens (sometimes simply called the Longfellow Gardens) were a zoo and garden in Minneapolis's Minnehaha neighborhood in Minnesota, United States. History A Minneapolis businessman and showman named Robert "Fish" Jones ...

, 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 in the United States. It was founded in 1885 with the establishment of the Minneapolis Library Board by an amendment to the Minneapolis ...

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

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

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 and ...

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) ...

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 highway in west-central, central, and east-central Minnesota, which runs from the North Dakota state line near Tenney and continues east and southeast to its eastern terminus at its intersection with U.S. Hi ...

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 by all modes including land, water, air, rail, walking and bicycling in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state' ...

, 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 census it had a population of 2,688. It is said that "Osseo" derives from the Ojibwe name ''waaseyaa'' meaning "there is light" (more commonly translated as "So ...

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 Ja ...

.
Longfellow House
at the

Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehoo ...

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