Taken on a Saturday in July, this photograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s birthplace, on the corner of Fore and Hancock Streets in Portland, affords a view of an Old Port neighborhood in 1887. Three women in summer dresses are gathered by the front steps, in the center foreground, while two girls converse on the sidewalk nearby. Another child, in a broad-brimmed hat sits on the Hancock Street sidewalk, to the left. In the background, neighboring homes in wooded lots are visible.

Built between 1786-1791, the three-story Federal-style house, with four chimneys, was the home of Captain Samuel Stephenson, whose wife, Abigail, was the sister of Longfellow's father, Stephen. The poet was born here in 1807. The house was demolished in 1955, to make way for local business. This photograph was included in an album owned by William S. Edwards, a civil engineer for the City of Portland.