History of Portland, Maine

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The history of Portland dates back to pre-colonial times, when the area was known as "Machigonne" by the native people who first lived there. The first European settler of Portland was Christopher Levett, an English naval captain who was granted 6,000 acres (24 km²) from the King of England in 1623 to found a permanent settlement in Casco Bay. Levett proposed to call the new settlement 'York,' after the town of his birth in England. A member of the Council for New England and an agent for Sir Fernando Gorges, Levett returned to England and wrote a book about his voyage, hoping to drum up support for the settlement.^[1] Levett was unsuccessful in stirring interest in his settlement, and he never returned to Maine. (Levett was in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 to confer with Governor John Winthrop, but he died aboard the return voyage to England.) It's unknown what became of the men he left behind. Fort Levett in Portland Harbor is named for him.^[2][3]

The next (and permanent) settlement by the English came in 1632, as a fishing and trading settlement. The town was then renamed Casco. In 1658 its name was changed again, this time to "Falmouth." A monument at the end of Congress Street where it meets the Eastern Promenade is a tribute to the four historical names for Portland.

In 1675, the village was completely destroyed by the Abanaki people during King Philip's War. The community was rebuilt, to be destroyed by the same natives again several years later. On October 18, 1775, the community was destroyed yet again, bombarded during the American Revolutionary War by the Royal Navy under command of Captain Henry Mowat.^[4]

Following the war, a section of Falmouth called "The Neck" developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and named it "Portland." Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British) which ended in 1809 and the War of 1812 which ended in 1815. In 1820 Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. The Abyssinian Meeting House, the 3rd Meeting House founded by Free African Americans, was founded in 1828 on Newbury Street in the East End. In 1832 the capital was moved to Augusta.

In 1851, Maine lead the nation by passing the first state law to prohibit the sale of alcohol except for "medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes." The law subsequently became known as the Maine law as 18 states quickly followed Maine. Portland was a center for protests against the law, and the protests culminated on June 2, 1855 in the Portland Rum Riot. Between 1,000 to 3,000 people opposed to the law gathered because Neal S. Dow, the Mayor of Portland and a Maine Temperance Society leader, had authorized a shipment of $1,600 of "medicinal and mechanical alcohol." The protesters believed, falsely, that this shipment was for private use. When the protesters failed to disperse, Dow ordered the Militia to fire. One man was killed and seven were wounded. Following the outcome of the Portland Rum Riot, the Maine law was repealed in 1856.^{[citation needed]}

The Cumberland and Oxford Canal extended waterborne commerce from Portland harbor to Sebago Lake and Long Lake in 1832. Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian exports upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway to Montreal in 1853. The Portland Company manufactured more than 600 19th century steam locomotives. Portland became a 20th century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company in 1911. Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923; and 20th century icebreakers later enabled ships to reach Montreal through the winter months.

The Great Fire of July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were left homeless. After this fire, Portland was rebuilt with brick and took on a Victorian appearance. Citizens began building huge Victorian mansions along the city's Western Promenade.

The quality and style of architecture in Portland is in large part due to the succession of well-known 19th-century architects who worked in the city. Alexander Parris (1780–1852) arrived about 1800 and left Portland with numerous Federal style buildings, although some would be lost in the 1866 fire. Charles A. Alexander (1822–1882) provided many designs for Victorian mansions. Henry Rowe (1810–1870) specialized in Gothic cottages. George M. Harding (1827–1910) designed many of the commercial buildings in Portland's Old Port, as well as many of Portland's ornate residential buildings. Around the turn of the century Frederick A. Tompson (1857–1906) designed many of Portland's residential buildings.

But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the Western Promenade area were Francis Henry Fassett (1823–1908) and John Calvin Stevens (1855–1940). Fassett was commissioned to build the Maine General Hospital Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center) and the Williston West Church as well as many other churches, schools, commercial buildings, apartment buildings, private residences, and his own duplex home on Pine Street. From the early 1880s to the 1930s Stevens worked in a wide range of styles from the Queen Anne and Romanesque popular at the beginning of his career, to the Mission Revival Style of the 1920s, but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, examples of which abound in this area.

The Victorian style architecture, which was popular during Portland's rebuilding, has been preserved very well by an emphasis on preservation on the part of the city government. In 1982 the area was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. In modern lifestyle surveys, it is often cited as one of America's best small cities to live in.

The erection of the Maine Mall, an indoor shopping center established in the suburb of South Portland during the 1970s, had a significant effect on Portland's downtown. Department stores and other major franchises, many from Congress Street or Free Street, either moved to the nearby mall or went out of business. This was a mixed blessing for locals, protecting the city's character (chain stores are often uninterested in it now) but led to a number of empty storefronts. Residents had to venture out of town for certain products and services no longer available on the peninsula.

Since the mid-1990s, Maine College of Art has been a revitalizing force in the downtown area, bringing in students from around the country, and restoring the historic Porteous building on Congress Street as its main facility. The school has also maintained the Baxter Building, once home to the city's public library, as a computer lab and photography studio.

Portland is currently experiencing a building boom, though much more controlled and conservative than a previous building boom during the 1980s. In recent years, Congress Street has become home to more stores and eateries, spurred on by the expanding Maine College of Art and the conversion of office buildings to high-end condos. Rapid development is occurring in the city's historically industrial Bayside neighborhood, as well as the emerging harborside Ocean Gateway neighborhood at the base of Munjoy Hill.^[5][6][7]

Northeast from City Hall c. 1910	Western Promenade c. 1908	Soldiers' Monument c. 1908	Photo taken from roughly the same spot as 1908 postcard, but in 2004
Old Library c. 1905 (now Baxter Building)	A house on Chadwick Street in the West End	A view down Carroll Street in the West End	A house on Vaughan Street in the West End

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