In the Colonial Revival garden in the backyard of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s boyhood home, visitors can sit where the poet did, under shade trees beside blooming lilacs, writing about birds “singing, singing, singing.”

The Longfellow Garden Club – the group responsible for preserving and cultivating this public oasis in the heart of downtown Portland – celebrated its centennial July 18 with a garden party and dedication of a sun dial.

“The garden is a major contribution to the Portland area, and a lot of people don’t even know it’s back there,” said Barbara Tolman, a Portland gardener who has been a club member more than half of her 100 years.

The poet’s younger sister, Anne Longfellow Pierce, bequeathed the house and garden to the Maine Historical Society in 1901, asking that they be open to the public and that the society build a library on the grounds. A decade later, a gardener named Pearl Wing toured the house and noted the unkempt gardening, thinking that someone ought to do something about it. Another decade later, Wing visited the garden again and decided that, if no one else was going to pick up the spade, so to speak, she would. By the spring of 1924, Wing and five of her friends had permission to restore the garden. This was the start of the Longfellow Garden Club.

“Club members have faithfully tended the garden, coming every two weeks for work parties,” said member Nancy Rea, who is also president of the Garden Club Federation of Maine. “The garden was deinstalled for the expansion of the Brown Library and reinstalled on a slightly smaller scale in 2009. It is now a fully mature garden with tall elms, an increasing number of native plants and plants that were found in the original garden.”

The garden is open to the public from May to October, during Maine Historical Society museum gallery hours. Just slip through the Children’s Gate and follow the brick walk. In addition to the sun dial, the garden’s lion-headed fountain, wrought-iron furniture and trellises harken back to a simpler quiet time.

“We’ve got longevity,” said Nancy Gribble-Tay, who is co-president of the club with Imelda Schaefer. “And it takes hard work. Many hands have touched this beautiful garden.”

Inside Maine Historical Society, the “Longfellow Garden Club Centennial” exhibit (open until Oct. 19) features plein-air works by Maine College of Art & Design students alongside historical photographs and images.

Maine Historical Society also hosts Beer in the Garden socials. In conjunction with the “Music in Maine” exhibit, the next Beer in the Garden event features Elvis tribute artist Jessi Mallory (4:30-6:30 p.m. Aug. 8) and brews by Gearing Brewing Co. and Eighteen Twenty Brewing Co. For more information, go to mainehistory.org.

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be reached at amyparadysz@gmail.com.