Anne Longfellow Thorp
Anne Longfellow Thorp (9 April 1891-26 April 1977) was known as “Tukey” or “Tuke” by her family when she was a young girl. She participated as a dancing goddess at the Craigie House fetes as a young girl. (The Craigie House was the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for almost 50 years, and it had previously served as the headquarters of General George Washington.) Anne chose to go to Vassar College instead of Radcliffe where her mother and Erica had studied. Perhaps inspired by her sister Erica, she and a close friend spent a year working at an orphanage for children of war in Normandy in 1920-1921. Persuaded by her mentor at Vassar, Katharine Taylor, she became a history instructor at Cambridge’s Shady Hill School. Here she taught the future poet and memoirist May Sarton who would later write a loving homage to her in the form of a novel, The Magnificent Spinster. She lived at 115 Brattle Street until around 1935 when she built a home inspired by the colonial style in Sudbury.
She left Shady Hill School in her fifties. She became involved in a second effort to rebuild Europe after a second world war, this time the establishment of a Neighborhood House in devastated Bremen, Germany. Upon her return, she devoted more time to administering the Craigie House and its archives with her cousin Harry. She aided Harry in vetting the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow materials which they permitted Lawrance Thompson to use for his book Young Longfellow. She also participated in the local Cambridge Community Center as a trustee. She sold her Sudbury home and renovated the barn in back of 115 Brattle Street into an apartment for herself and Agnes Swift, a Shady Hill librarian who had taken care of her sister Alice.
Throughout her life, she visited the family’s house in Northeast Harbor in the summer. After a slight stroke and weakening heart condition, she died in Cambridge in 1977.
Anne's sister, Alice Allegra Thorp, never married. Agnes Swift lived with Alice and cared for her for 43 (?) years, spending summers on Greening Island with her. After Alice died, "Swifty" moved in with Anne to be her caregiver and companion.
Alice Mary Longfellow, Anne's aunt (her mother's sister) was life companions with Fanny Stone, and the two women spent time with Alice's sister and nieces on Greening Island.
She left Shady Hill School in her fifties. She became involved in a second effort to rebuild Europe after a second world war, this time the establishment of a Neighborhood House in devastated Bremen, Germany. Upon her return, she devoted more time to administering the Craigie House and its archives with her cousin Harry. She aided Harry in vetting the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow materials which they permitted Lawrance Thompson to use for his book Young Longfellow. She also participated in the local Cambridge Community Center as a trustee. She sold her Sudbury home and renovated the barn in back of 115 Brattle Street into an apartment for herself and Agnes Swift, a Shady Hill librarian who had taken care of her sister Alice.
Throughout her life, she visited the family’s house in Northeast Harbor in the summer. After a slight stroke and weakening heart condition, she died in Cambridge in 1977.
Anne's sister, Alice Allegra Thorp, never married. Agnes Swift lived with Alice and cared for her for 43 (?) years, spending summers on Greening Island with her. After Alice died, "Swifty" moved in with Anne to be her caregiver and companion.
Alice Mary Longfellow, Anne's aunt (her mother's sister) was life companions with Fanny Stone, and the two women spent time with Alice's sister and nieces on Greening Island.