Washington did sleep here, but not everywhere

So, yes, the Newburyport Public Library can brag that “George Washington slept here.’’

It’s a boast so commonplace it has become a historical cliché and fodder for bawdy jokes. From all the tales, you would think old George was a regular rolling stone, a Colonial vagabond in a perpetual dreamland.

While the number of New England houses where the father of our country supposedly snoozed may seem even more plentiful than Dunkin’ Donuts shops, there are actually few homes and inns still standing with documented proof that Washington slumbered inside, and only a handful are open to the public.

Washington’s military service and presidential duties brought him to New England on several occasions. When he arrived in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army in July 1775, Washington first lodged in the Wadsworth House, which still stands in Harvard Yard. Finding it inadequate for his military needs, Washington set up headquarters in a nearby Georgian mansion on “Tory Row’’ that had been abandoned by a family of Loyalists when the drums of war began to beat.

The glorious Brattle Street manse is best known today as the residence of another colossus, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But even at the height of the poet’s fame, strangers knocking on his door were much less interested in meeting the wordsmith than in getting a tour of Washington’s hallowed headquarters. Longfellow was in awe to be living in Washington’s old quarters, so he made few structural changes to the house.

Historians can’t be sure which of the Longfellow House’s second-floor bedrooms belonged to Washington, but he may not have gotten much sleep there anyway. No doubt he spent many nights agonizing over the daunting challenge of molding his makeshift army into a powerful fighting force.