For those asking about the chestnut tree sketched by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longellow (Feb. 27, 1807–March 24, 1882) and displayed as last image in this post:
The poem's chestnut tree towered over the smithy, also known as forge, that served as the workshop, located at 54 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for Longfellow's neighbor, blacksmith Dexter Pratt (May 18, 1801-Oct. 4, 1847).
The widening of Brattle Street in 1871 inconveniently placed the chestnut tree "in the street, just beyond the curb," according to "Second Only to the Washington Elm in Eager Tourist Interest Is the Site of 'The Spreading Chestnut Tree' Made Famous in Longfellow's Poem," an article published Saturday, April 7, 1923, in "A Review of Beautiful and Historic Cambridge" section of The Cambridge Tribune (vol. XLVI, no. 6, page 6; URL @
https://cambridge.dlconsulting.com/?a=d&d=Tribune19230407-01.2.73&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------). Despite the community's "spirited" opposition, the tree was cut down "bright and early, before five o'clock one April morning" in 1876. "The school children of Cambridge presented Longfellow with an armchair made of the tree and he made this the subject of a poem."
The armchair was designed by architect and architectural scholar William Pitt Preble Longfellow (Oct. 25, 1836-Aug. 3, 1913), son of the poet's older brother, Stephen Longfellow (Aug. 14, 1805-Sep. 19, 1850), according to "The Chestnut Chair, ca. 1876" record on the Maine Memory Network website (
https://www.mainememory.net/record/15476).
The chair's design included an excerpt from the opening and closing lines of the fourth stanza from Longfellow's eight-stanza poem, "The Village Blacksmith":
"And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
. . . . ,
. . . ,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing floor."
The gifting schoolchildren commissioned Boston-based cabinet maker H. Edgar Hartwell to make the chair, according to "Collections From Massachusetts National Parks" on the Google Arts & Culture website (
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/collections-from-massachusetts-national-parks-centennial-one-object-exhibit/UwWR3xj8q5i6IQ).
The commemorative chair was presented to the poet on his 72nd birthday. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expressed his appreciation for the gift in a poem, "From My Arm-Chair."
