Located in the Head of Tide village of Alna Maine, this large Greek Revival was once the home of prolific poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson. The home was built around 1835, likely by Edwin’s grandfather, Edward Robinson. The home was inherited by Edward’s second-born son, Edward Jr. Edward Jr. and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Palmer had two sons before their third pregnancy. Their third child was Edwin, but his parents did not name him until he was six months old, as it was said that they wished for a daughter. On a vacation, other vacationers decided that their six-month-old son should have a name, and selected the name “Edwin” from a hat containing a random set of boy’s names. The man who drew the name was from Arlington, Massachusetts, so “Arlington” was used for his middle name. Edwin described his childhood as “stark and unhappy” and his young adult years were plagued with tragedy with the death of a brother from a drug overdose and with his older brother marrying the woman that he was in love with. He would defy the odds and was accepted to Harvard. He became engaged in writing, specifically poetry, with his early struggles leading many of his poems to have a dark pessimism and his stories to deal with “an American dream gone awry.” He would go on to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry three times in the 1920s. While he would likely not want to ever see this house again, it is significant both architecturally and as the home in his formative years in Alna.
Buildings of New England 