History of Portland, Maine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The History of Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...

begins when the area was called Machigonne, meaning "great neck," by the Abenaki Native Americans who originally inhabited the peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

. It extends to the city's recent cultural and economic renaissance.

Settlement

The first Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an to attempt settlement was Christopher Levett

Christopher Levett

Capt. Christopher Levett was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first European to do so. Levett left behind a group of settlers at his Maine...

, an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

naval captain who was granted 6000 acres (24.3 km²) from the King of England in 1623 to found a permanent settlement in Casco Bay

Casco Bay

Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth...

. Levett proposed naming it York after York, England, the town of his birth. A member of the Plymouth Council for New England

Plymouth Council for New England

The Plymouth Council for New England was the name of a 17th century English joint stock company that was granted a royal charter to found colonial settlements along the coast of North America....

and an agent for Sir Ferdinando Gorges

Ferdinando Gorges

Sir Ferdinando Gorges , the "Father of English Colonization in North America", was an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine in 1622, although Gorges himself never set foot in the New World.-Biography:...

, Lord Proprietor of Maine, he returned to England and wrote a book about his voyage, hoping to generate support for the settlement. But his efforts yielded little interest, and Levett never returned to Maine. He did sail to Massachusetts Bay Colony

Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...

in 1630 to confer with Governor John Winthrop

John Winthrop

John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...

, but died during return passage to England on the toilet. It's unknown what became of the men he left behind at Machigonne. Fort Levett

Fort Levett

Fort Levett was a former U.S. Army fort built on Cushing Island, Maine, in 1898. Located in Cumberland County, Maine, in the middle of Casco Bay near Portland, Maine, the fort was heavily fortified with cannons for coastal defense...

, built in 1894 on Cushing Island

Cushing Island, Maine

Cushing Island, or Cushing's Island, is a privately owned island in Casco Bay in the U.S. state of Maine. Part of the city of Portland, Maine, roughly 45 families live there seasonally....

in Portland Harbor, is named for him.

The next (and first permanent) settlement came in 1633 when George Cleeve

George Cleeve

George Cleeve was an early settler and "founder of Portland, Maine"; Deputy President of the Province of Lygonia from 1643 until the final submission of its Maine towns to Massachusetts authority in 1658....

and Richard Tucker established a fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

and trading

Trade

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

village. The town was then renamed Casco. In 1658, its name was changed again, this time to Falmouth after Falmouth, England. An obelisk

Obelisk

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

monument at the end of Congress Street

Congress Street (Portland, Maine)

Congress Street is the main street in Portland, Maine. Congress stretches from Portland's southwestern border with South Portland through a number of neighborhoods before ending overlooking the Eastern Promenade on Munjoy Hill...

, where it meets the Eastern Promenade

Eastern Promenade

The Eastern Promenade is an historic promenade, public park and recreation area in Portland, Maine. Construction of the Promenade began in 1836 and continued periodically until 1934. The park was designed by the Olmstead Brothers design firm and experienced its greatest expansion from the 1880s...

, commemorates the four historical names of Portland.

Raid on Portland (1676)

In 1676, the village was completely destroyed by the Abenaki people during King Philip's War

King Philip's War

King Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. The war is named after the main leader of the...

. In 1678, it was rebuilt and Fort Loyal erected, the largest fortification on the coast.

Raid on Portland (1690)

Nevertheless, it was all destroyed in 1690 during King William's War

King William's War

The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...

by a combined force of 400-500 French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

and Indians. It remained abandoned until after the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth

Treaty of Portsmouth (1713)

The Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on July 13, 1713, ended hostilities between Eastern Abenakis with the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The agreement renewed a treaty of 1693 the Indians had made with Governor William Phips, two in a series of attempts to establish peace between Indians and...

American Revolution

On October 18, 1775, the community was destroyed yet again, bombarded for 9 hours during the Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

by the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

's HMS Canceaux under command of Lieutenant Henry Mowat. The Burning of Falmouth

Burning of Falmouth

The Burning of Falmouth was an attack by a fleet of Royal Navy vessels on the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts . The fleet was commanded by Captain Henry Mowat...

left three-quarters of the town in ashes -- and its citizens committed to independence. When rebuilt, the community's center shifted from India Street to where the Old Port district is today.

Trade and shipping center

Following the war, a section of Falmouth called The Neck developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

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

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, which ended in 1815. In 1820, Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. The Abyssinian Meeting House

Abyssinian Meeting House

The Abyssinian Meeting House is an historic house built by free African-Americans in Portland, Maine at 73–75 Newbury Street in the Munjoy Hill and downtown neighborhoods. Established in 1828, the Meeting House was the cultural center for African-Americans in southern Maine from its inception until...

, 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

Augusta, Maine

Augusta is the capital of the US state of Maine, county seat of Kennebec County, and center of population for Maine. The city's population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont and Pierre, South Dakota...

.

In 1851, Maine

Maine

led 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

Maine law

The Maine law, passed in 1851 in Maine, was one of the first statutory implementations of the developing temperance movement in the United States.-History:Temperance activist Neal Dow helped craft this 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

Portland Rum Riot

The Portland Rum Riot, also called the Maine Law Riot, was a brief but violent period of civil unrest that occurred in Portland, Maine on June 2, 1855 in response to the Maine law which prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcohol in the state the year before.-History:The Maine law of 1851...

. Between 1,000 to 3,000 people opposed to the law gathered because Neal S. Dow

Neal S. Dow

Neal S. Dow , nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", was mayor of Portland, Maine. He sponsored the "Maine law of 1851", which prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor...

, 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

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

to fire. One man was killed and seven were wounded. Following the outcome of the Portland Rum Riot

Portland Rum Riot

, the Maine law

Maine law

was repealed in 1856.

The Cumberland and Oxford Canal

Cumberland and Oxford Canal

The Cumberland and Oxford Canal was opened in 1832 to connect the largest lakes of southern Maine with the seaport of Portland, Maine. The canal followed the Presumpscot River from Sebago Lake through the towns of Standish, Windham, Gorham, and Westbrook. The Canal diverged from the river at...

extended waterborne commerce from Portland harbor to Sebago Lake

Sebago Lake

Sebago Lake is the deepest and second largest lake in the U.S. state of Maine. The lake is deep at its deepest point, with a mean depth of , covers about in surface area, has a length of and a shoreline length of . The surface is around above sea level, so the deep bottom is below the present...

and Long Lake

Long Lake (Maine)

Long Lake is an eleven mile lake between the towns of Naples, Maine, Bridgton, Maine and Harrison, Maine. It is connected to Brandy Pond through the Chute River. Long Lake was created by receding glaciers, and has many coves and rocks....

in 1832. Portland became the primary ice-free winter seaport for Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

exports upon completion of the Grand Trunk Railway

Grand Trunk Railway

The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...

to Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

in 1853. In the 19th-century, The Portland Company manufactured more than 600 steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s. Portland became a 20th century rail hub as five additional rail lines merged into Portland Terminal Company

Portland Terminal Company

The Portland Terminal Company was a terminal railroad notable for its control of switching activity for the Maine Central and Boston & Maine railroads in the Maine cities of Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook.- History :...

in 1911. Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, Nova Scotia

Halifax Harbour

Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality.-Harbour description:The harbour is called Jipugtug by the Mi'kmaq first nation, anglisized as Chebucto...

following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923; and 20th-century icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...

s later enabled ships to reach Montreal throughout the winter.

The Great Fire and rebuilding

The Great Fire

1866 Great Fire of Portland, Maine

The Great Fire of Portland, Maine occurred on July 4, 1866 — the first Independence Day after the end of the American Civil War. Five years before the Great Chicago Fire, this was the greatest fire yet seen in an American city. It started in a boat house on Commercial Street, likely caused by...

of July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day

Independence Day (United States)

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...

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

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

appearance. Prosperous citizens began building mansions in the city's fashionable West End.

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

Alexander Parris

Alexander Parris was a prominent American architect-engineer. Beginning as a housewright, he evolved into an architect whose work transitioned from Federal style architecture to the later Greek Revival. Parris taught Ammi B. Young, and was among the group of architects influential in founding what...

(1780–1852) arrived about 1800 and endowed Portland with numerous Federal style buildings, although some were lost in the 1866 fire. Charles A. Alexander (1822–1882) designed numerous Victorian mansions. Henry Rowe (1810–1870) specialized in Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

cottages. George M. Harding (1827–1910) designed many of the commercial buildings in Portland's Old Port

Old Port

The Old Port is a district of Portland, Maine, known for its cobblestone streets, 19th century brick buildings and fishing piers. The district is filled with boutiques, restaurants and bars...

, as well as ornate residential buildings. Around the turn of the century, Frederick A. Tompson (1857–1919) also designed many of city's residential buildings.

But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the West End area were Francis H. Fassett (1823–1908) and John Calvin Stevens

John Calvin Stevens

John Calvin Stevens was an American architect who worked in two related styles — the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style, which dominated national domestic architecture for the first half of the 20th century...

(1855–1940). Fassett was commissioned to build the Maine General Hospital Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center

Maine Medical Center

Maine Medical Center is a 637 licensed-bed teaching hospital located in Portland, Maine, United States with a staff of over 6,000 people. Founded in 1874, it is the largest hospital in northern New England with 27,000 inpatients, more than 500,000 outpatient visits and over 16,000 surgeries...

) 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

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

popular at the beginning of his career, to the Mission Revival Style

Mission Revival Style architecture

The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....

of the 1920s, but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival

Colonial Revival architecture

The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...

styles, examples of which abound in this area.

Decline and revival

The erection of the Maine Mall, an indoor shopping center established in the suburb

Suburb

The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...

of South Portland

South Portland, Maine

South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state. Founded in 1895, as of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,002. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is situated on Portland Harbor and overlooks the skyline of...

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

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

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.

But now the old seaport is attracting residents and investment. Because of the city government's emphasis on preservation, much of the opulent Victorian architecture of Portland's rebuilding has been restored. In 1982, the area was entered on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

. In modern lifestyle surveys, it is often cited as one of America's best small cities to live in.

Portland is currently experiencing a building boom, although more controlled and conservative than the 1980s building boom. 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 historically industrial Bayside neighborhood, as well as the emerging harborside Ocean Gateway neighborhood at the base of Munjoy Hill

Munjoy Hill

Munjoy Hill is an historically Irish-American neighborhood and prominent geographical feature of Portland, Maine. It is located east of downtown, and south of East Deering, the neighborhood it is connected to by Tukey's Bridge.-Geography:...

.

Since the mid-1990s, Maine College of Art

Maine College of Art

The Maine College of Art is a fully accredited, degree-granting art college in the city of Portland, Maine. It should not be confused with the Art Institute of Portland which is located in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1882, the Maine College of Art is the oldest arts educational institution in Maine...

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.

External links

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