Longworth family papers, 1860-1929
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: chronological

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Housed in Small Collections Box 12.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Copies and digital prints of letters, photographs, family papers and original deeds (1860-1929) from the William and Ellen Crewe Longworth family of Nashville, Tennessee. Included in the photographs are a photo of William and Ellen Longworth and their children probably taken in the late 1880s as well as several of the Longworth siblings, spouses and children taken at the family home at 1409 12th Avenue South in the Edgehill neighborhood of Nashville in the early 1900's. In addition, there are copies of several photographs of the gravesite of Ellen Crewe Longworth in Southern Cemetery, Manchester, England including one of William Longworth and several unidentified men posed beside Ellen Longworth's gravestone. The letters include correspondence from the spring of 1889 from Frederick Crewe, Ellen Longworth's brother, and from William Longworth to the family in Nashville regarding William's visit to England following his wife's death. There is also a 1929 letter from William and Ellen Longworth's son, John Handel Longworth, to his sisters, Alice and Jane Sarah Longworth thanking them for deeding their interest in the family home to him. The property deeds in the collection include one dated January 2, 1860 detailing William Longworth's purchase of the property on 12th Avenue South and two in which members of the family deed their interest in the property to John Handel Longworth. Also included are copies of handwritten birth and death records and the obituaries of both William and Ellen Crewe Longworth.

Cite as: Longworth Family Papers, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Elizabeth Crewe Longworth Pellicciotti;,Gift;,2003.,Acc. 2004.029

William Longworth was born in Manchester, England in 1832. Ellen Crewe was born in Shropshire, England in 1831. They were married in Manchester in 1852 and came to Nashville in 1858. William found work as a machinist for Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. He purchased a lot in South Nashville on what was then Middle Franklin Pike (now 12th Avenue South in the Edgehill neighborhood) in 1860. The Longworths had eleven children, eight of whom survived into adulthood. In December of 1888, Ellen Longworth and her youngest son, Henry Arthur Longworth, traveled to England to visit her family there. Soon after her arrival in Manchester, Ellen Longworth died at the home of her brother, Frederick Crewe and was buried in Southern Cemetery, Manchester. In the spring of 1889, William Longworth traveled, perhaps with one of his sons, to visit his wife's grave. After a visit of some weeks, he returned to Nashville and the family home where he lived until his death in 1905. The property at 1409 12th Avenue South remained in the Longworth family until March of 1964 when Otto H. Longworth, son of John Handel Longworth, sold it to Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County as the site for the Edgehill Branch of Nashville Public Library.

In English.

In the custody of Elizabeth Crewe Longworth Pellicciotti, great granddaughter of William and Ellen Longworth. Loaned to the Special Collections Division of Nashville Public Library for scanning and photocopying for their collections in 2003. Originals returned to donor after scanning.

reproduce;,2003;,scan,Beth Odle

process;,2017;,Kathleen Feduccia

No further accruals are expected.