USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 24
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4. Site of Portland Museum, SW side of Monument Square, now occupied by the firm of Loring, Short & Harmon. In 1806 when a group of eight four-story buildings along the southwestern side of Haymarket Square (now Monument Square) known as Haymarket Row was erected, Portland emerged from an adolescent town into a full-grown if small metropolis. Indicative of the city's expansion and the accompanying new cultural move- ment was the opening in 1823 of the so-called Portland Museum, occupy- ing the third and fourth floors of four of the new buildings in Haymarket Row. Although never a theater, a place and form of entertainment which was still locally frowned upon by Puritanical folk, the Museum did bring to Portland a new type of amusement. Exhibiting mounted birds, stuffed ani- mals, waxworks, and freaks, the Museum also had a small showing of art - panoramas of strange lands, bizarre and colorful paintings of battlefields and Indian scenes, and, most important, a few pictures of some artistic merit. Thus, to the old Portland Museum goes credit for first bringing to the man of the street in Portland a glimpse of objects of art hitherto con- fined to private homes. Later Haymarket Row was replaced by other build- ings, among them the Lancaster Building in which was located one of the city's first theaters (see Theater) .
5. Wadsworth-Longfellow House (1785-86) (open week days 9:30-5: June 1 - Sept. 15: admission 25c) 487 Congress St. This dignified old dwelling, seemingly out of place on Portland's busiest street, was the child- hood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Built by General Peleg Wadsworth, the poet's grandfather, it was the first brick house in the city. Originally a two-story structure constructed of bricks brought from Phila- delphia, the gable roof was destroyed by fire in 1815; in rebuilding, the present third story and hip roof were added. Set back from the street be- hind a high iron fence, its severe plainness is relieved only by the Doric portico forming the front entrance. Open to the public, the 16 rooms are filled with documents, manuscripts, portraits, costumes, household utensils, and furniture used by the Wadsworth and Longfellow families, items per- taining to early Portland history, and many of the poet's personal belong- ings. At the rear of the house is a pleasant shaded garden with quiet walks.
The first-floor living room was once used as a law office by Stephen Long- fellow, father of the poet, and in this room Henry and his brother Stephen, George W. Pierce, William Pitt Fessenden, and others studied law. The desk in the dining room, or den, was used by the poet in writing many of his poems, among them a part of 'Hyperion,' and 'The Rainy Day' in which mention is made of the vine that still sways in the breeze outside the window.
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The "Bard of Portland," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (see Literature) , was born at the Fore Street home of his aunt February 27, 1807, but lived in the Congress Street house until he was 14. At the age of three Long- fellow, still in dresses and accompanied by a negro servant, was taken to school on horseback. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821 and a few years after his graduation became the college's first professor of modern languages. In 1835 he joined the faculty of Harvard University, and from that time until his death his home was at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At the rear of the Wadsworth-Longfellow House and entered through an arched gate, is the Maine Historical Society (open week days 9:30-5; Wed. 9:30-12; adm. free). This square, undistinguished, brick building, erected in 1908 from designs by Alexander Longfellow, nephew of the poet, is the home of the Maine Historical Society founded in 1822, and contains a valuable historical and genealogical library for the use of society mem- bers (library privileges on request). Included in the more than 30,000 volumes are many interesting and valuable collections, one of which is a series of manuscripts with well over 2,000 items pertaining to Maine his- tory. The more important are the Baxter Papers, Pejepscot Papers, Kenne- bec Purchase, King and Knox Papers, and the Northeastern Boundary Papers. Of interest to students are the General Knox Collection, Willis Papers, F. O. J. Smith Papers, including Correspondence with Samuel F. B. Morse, and U. S. Marshall Thomas G. Thornton's Papers. One of the society's valuable possessions is the Dr. John S. Fogg Autograph Collection.
There are also marked exhibits on Maine history, local history, and archeol- ogy. The John W. Penny Collection of Indian Relics, dating from the be- ginning of the 18th century, were the property of Father Sebastian Rale, early Maine missionary priest. In addition, there are displays of military equipment of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, as well as documentary facsimiles, ship models, silverware, glassware, textiles, watches, clocks, lamps and lanterns of earlier days, and oil paintings. Among the statuary ex- hibits is a marble bust of Longfellow, a replica of that in Westminster Abbey.
Longfellow Garden (open upon request), entered either from the Wads- worth-Longfellow House or near the entrance to the Maine Historical So- ciety, is much the same as when the poet lived in Portland. The Long- fellow Garden Society supervises and maintains the garden, in which old- fashioned flowers and shrubs flourish beneath gnarled trees. The old, wooden garden bench was once a pew in the First Parish Church, where Longfellow attended services.
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6. The Chapman Building, 477 Congress St., a 12-story modern office structure designed by the local architect Herbert W. Rhodes, has domi- nated the northeastern side of the city's shopping district since 1924. From the Observation Tower (open upon request, apply Room 1206, 9-5; adm. free) there is a splendid panoramic view of the city and harbor.
The building occupies the site of the Preble House, a hostelry that was famous for more than sixty years as the meeting place in the 19th century of Portland's social, political, and sporting groups. Originally this was the private mansion of the Preble family and was built more than a century ago by Commodore Edward Preble (1761-1807) Maine's old sea dog who has been termed the "Father of the American Navy." Prior to the War of 1812 the young American navy was scorned by the world powers. This contempt was shown even by the pirates of the Mediterranean, who, from such ports as Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, looted many American mer- chant ships and made slaves of their crews. Lacking a navy to protect American shipping, the Government was forced to pay huge sums of ran- som money to the pirates. In 1803 the growing nation determined to stop further depredations on the country's shipping and sent a squadron of armed vessels to attack the Barbary Coast ports, home of the pirates. In 1804 Portland's Commodore Preble, aboard the historic Constitution, com- manded the attack on the pirates' stronghold, and under his expert guidance the marauding plague that had beset American shipping for years was wiped out. More important than this was the development of a group of young seamen under his leadership and guidance, who later made the American navy invincible. Included among this group were such men as Oliver H. Perry, who defeated the English on Lake Erie, declaring, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours!"; Richard Bainbridge, in command of the Constitution in the War of 1812; and James Lawrence whose "Don't give up the ship!" has become an American classic in heroism.
Preble, however, never took up residence in his new home in Portland, as he died in 1807, but his widow and son lived there for years. Herbert G. Jones, local author, writes of Commodore Preble in his Old Portland Town: "When he entered the service in the days of the Revolution the American Navy was negligible, a chaotic, disorganized affair, politically controlled. He left it unified and efficient, and it was this very Preble spirit that en- abled the almost unknown and despised American navy to match the mighty fleet of the British in the War of 1812, and come off victorious."
7. The Fidelity Building, 467 Congress St., rises 10 stories above the city's central business square. Designed by G. Henri Desmond, who was in charge
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of the remodeling of the Bulfinch-designed State Capitol in Augusta, this structure built in 1910 is one of the few skyscrapers in Portland. The bank- ing room of the National Bank of Commerce, located on the street floor of the building, is architecturally interesting, its walls decorated with a dado of violet breccia and Caen stone.
The Fidelity Building occupies the site of the old Deering Block in which was located the historic Portland Theatre where many of the outstanding dramatic stars of the 19th century were presented on the stage in a wide repertory of plays (see Theater) .
8. The Playhouse, 16 Elm St., is the workshop theater of the Portland Players, a group of amateur Portlanders who have produced such theatri- cal successes as George Bernard Shaw's Devil's Disciple, Elizabeth McFad- den's Double Door, Noel Coward's Hayfever, Owen Davis' Icebound, and The Royal Family, by George Kaufmann and Edna Ferber. The Portland Players number more than three hundred fifty active members who six times each winter gather to experiment with dramatic productions. In addition, five major productions, including one Gilbert and Sullivan pre- sentation, are given under the direction of Albert Willard Smith during the theater season to about 1,000 associate members. The Playhouse, erected in 1914 for a motion picture theater, became the theater-workshop in 1931.
9. The Portland Society of Natural History, 22 Elm St., occupies a some- what plain building and has the most complete collection of Maine plant life in the State. In the Library (not generally open to the public, but available through the services of the staff) are more than 5,000 volumes dealing with natural history, geographical surveys, and the proceedings of other scientific bodies and organizations throughout the world. The collec- tion of books on anthropology, the arts, botany, geology, paleontology, and zoology is extremely valuable. Of special interest are the complete sets of The Nuttal Bulletin, Rhodova, and Biological Abstracts. The Museum (open daily except Sat. and Sun. 2-5; adm. free), on the second floor, dis- plays the finest collection of allied natural history subjects in Maine, cover- ing quite completely the anthropology, botany, geology, paleontology, and zoology of the State. Of special interest are: the collections of Devonian plants of Perry (Me.); local Pleistocene marine fossils; the Herbert H. Brock collection of North American birds; the Herbert Richardson collec- tion of Lepidoptera; and the Fred A. Wendell collection of birds.
The Portland Society of Natural History was organized in 1843 and in- corporated seven years later; the building was constructed in 1879 from designs by the architect F. H. Fassett. The Society published The Journal
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(1864), which contained a treatise on the land shells of Maine. It also publishes from time to time the Proceedings of the Portland Society of Natural History, consisting of papers on the State's natural history.
10. The stucco First Lutheran Church, 32 Elm St., stands on the site of its wooden predecessor built in 1877, three years after Portland's first Lutheran society had been formed. The early congregations were composed princi- pally of emigrant Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. In 1924 the original church structure was destroyed by fire, and the same year the present build- ing was erected. Of particular interest is an oil painting above the altar, a copy by August Klagstad of Von Gebhardt's 'Last Supper.' The paint- ing was in the original structure, but during the fire heavy roof beams fell across the altar in such a position that it was undamaged.
11. The Clapp Memorial Building, 443 Congress St., a modern seven- story structure built in 1924 and designed by Henri Sibour, of Washington and the firm of Desmond and Lord, of Boston, occupies the site of the Asa Clapp mansion. The original house, built in 1794 by Daniel Davis who later became Attorney General of Massachusetts, was purchased in 1804 by Captain Asa Clapp (1762-1873), a Revolutionary sea-veteran and promi- nent local merchant and shipbuilder.
12. The eastern end of the Metropolitan Apartments, 439 Congress St., is the site of the home of Dr. Samuel Deane, for many years co-minister with peppery old Parson Thomas Smith of the First Parish Church. When supporters of the First Parish invited Dr. Deane to become associate pastor, things were in a sad state; warring inter-parish factions had separated from the mother church and formed new societies (see Religion), which led Parson Smith to exclaim in his diary: "I have been discouraged about my enemies; they talk of building a new meeting-house." Deane arrived here and was ordained in 1764. A year later he purchased a three-acre plot of land extending from present Congress Street to Back Cove, and on it built his home. When the town was destroyed by the British in the latter part of 1775 Deane moved to Gorham and established his residence on a farm.
Dr. Deane's house escaped destruction and enjoyed a long and full exist- ence, although a cannonball passed through its walls during the Mowat bombardment of 'The Neck.' Later a company of soldiers was quartered there. In 1776 General Joseph Frye, in command of the local soldiery dur- ing the Revolution, made the house his residence. Subsequently the old building passed through many phases - a private residence, a boarding- house, an office building, a place of amusement. It came through the Great
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Fire' of 1866 unscathed, but 10 years later was moved back on the lot to make way for the Farrington Block, predecessor of the Metropolitan Apart- ments. The house remained in its new location until 1915 when it was de- molished during the construction of the Portland High School.
Soon after his arrival in 1764 Dr. Deane entered into many activities other than his ecclesiastical duties. Tall, erect, and portly, his figure soon became a familiar sight on the town's streets and near-by roads. The many things into which he entered are shown in his famous diary. Meticulously kept from 1761 until his death in 1814, the diary is comparable to Parson Smith's famous journal for its completeness of the many everyday events that oc- curred throughout the parish in those early years. His literary pursuits of a classical nature were well known and include the two-volume The New Eng- land Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary published in 1790. Prior to his ar- rival in Portland and while a student at Harvard, he contributed to the volume of congratulatory addresses presented to England's King George III. In this volume, Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis Apud Novanglos is the Latin Ode said to have been written by Deane and titled 'In Regis Inaugurationem.'
13. The First Parish (Unitarian) Church, 425 Congress St., is second suc- cessor to a meetinghouse that stood at the corner of Middle and India streets and served 'The Neck' from 1721 to 1746 as a place of worship and for a time as a courthouse. Parson Thomas Smith, its first ordained min- ister, arrived soon after Puritan Massachusetts had ordered Falmouth's citizens to get a minister (see Religion), succeeding a long line of itinerant ministers, one of whom was the Reverend George Burroughs, who had preached on 'The Neck' in the 1670's and was hanged for witchcraft in Salem in 1692. The original Congregational church was replaced in 1740 by one that came to be known as Old Jerusalem. Becoming Unitarian in 1809, it attained its greatest prominence under the Reverend Ichabod Nichols, who was called to the parish at that time. This second church, a Portland landmark for nearly a century, withstood the Mowat bombard- ment of the town in 1775. "Old Jerusalem" was replaced in 1825 by the present stone structure.
With the exception of the galleries being lowered and walls stuccoed in 1852 and the granite parish room added to the eastern side in 1890, the church remains practically in its original state. Built of granite quarried in Freeport, the structure follows early 19th century meetinghouse design - severe side walls with high and gabled roof, topped by a tall, graceful spire with clock and bell. The original bell, taken from "Old Jerusalem," was
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replaced in 1862 by the present 3,340-pound bell. When the gilded ball of the weathervane was removed in 1888 for repairs, it was found to con- tain sundry documents and articles deposited in it at the time the spire was repaired and the vane regilded in 1862. Among these was a bottle labeled as containing rum made in an early Portland distillery, an 1825 almanac with marginal notes, and a section of the Eastern Argus, an early Port- land newspaper, describing the departure of Lafayette after his visit.
The severe interior of the First Parish Church gives evidence of its early Congregational association when that faith was enforced upon early resi- dents of The Neck' by the Puritan rulers of Massachusetts. The doored- pews, topped with rails of mahogany, are the ones installed in 1825; one of these pews has always been occupied by members of the Longfellow family. The front of the splendid pulpit is of paneled mahogany. Of especial note is the crystal chandelier, originally suspended from the sounding board of the pulpit of the first meetinghouse; in the chandelier chain is a cannon ball that passed through the walls of the "Old Jerusalem" when the British leveled the town in 1775. Around the interior walls are memorial tablets to former ministers and members of the early and present First Parish Church.
Among the Church's treasures are many connected with the city's religious history and early personalities. In the parish house hang oil paintings of Dr. Deane and his wife, Eunice, by unknown artists. Also in the parish house is an oil painting by an unknown artist of the Reverend Ichabod Nichols, first Unitarian minister, and three landscape paintings by Charles Codman (see Arts and Crafts), originally done as pew panels for "Old Jerusalem." On display is the frame of the baptismal bowl used in the early church. The church silver is especially notable; among the pieces are two silver tankards dating prior to 1780, and a silver tankard dated 1775 with the Latin inscription: "Ex dono surenium aliquorum Revdo Samueli Deane, pastori Fidelissmo."
On the church green, L. of the entrance porch, is a Memorial to Ichabod Nichols.
14. The Masonic Building, 415 Congress St., designed in the Italian Ren- aissance manner by Frederick A. Tompson of Portland and erected in 1912, is headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Maine. Since the inception of this lodge in 1820, Portland has been the chief center of Maine Masonic ac- tivities; today there are 206 chartered lodges with nearly 36,000 members in the State.
Masonry in Maine was organized in March, 1762, when a charter issued
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by the earlier established Massachusetts lodge authorized "Alexander Ross Esquire of Falmouth, in the County of Cumberland, within the province of Massachusetts Bay ... to congregate his brethren together to form a regular lodge." Ross, however, did not father Maine Masonry because "his business being great and his infirmities greater" he could not attend to neces- sary details in forming the lodge. After his death a short time later, au- thority to organize a local lodge was given to William Tyng, who at once proceeded to organize the present Portland Lodge No. 1, the first Masonic Lodge in Maine. Masonry spread rapidly throughout the District of Maine and in 30 years there were 31 active lodges. In 1826, however, the so- called "Morgan affair" in New York, an anti-Masonic controversy affect- ing the entire national order, caused many Maine lodges to surrender their charters and discontinue activities. Twenty years elapsed before Masonry in Maine again became important.
15. Site of Birthplace of Seargent S. Prentiss, 420 Congress St., now oc- cupied by Congress Hall. Seargent Smith Prentiss (1808-50), orator and political figure, was born in a two-story wooden house formerly standing on the southeast corner of Congress and Temple streets, and burned in the fire that swept Portland in 1866. Shortly after Maine became a State Prentiss emerged as a prominent Whig and acquired country-wide fame as a powerful political orator. In 1832 he moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and entered into a law partnership with John I. Guion, the firm attaining a national reputation, partly because of Prentiss' brilliant oratorical ability. Although elected to Congress in 1837 from Mississippi, he was not seated due to a contest regarding the legality of his election. In his own defense he made a three-day speech before Congress, and in a special election in Mississippi he was legally sent to Washington in 1838. During Henry Clay's campaign for the Whig nomination to the presidency, Prentiss traveled throughout the country in his behalf, returning to Portland where he delivered his sonorous apostrophes in Clay's favor. An amusing story is told regarding Prentiss' oratorical skill. While staying in the famous Old Oak Tree Inn at Raymond, Mississippi, he rose from bed during the night and awakened the guests to listen to a speech in defense of a bedbug that had bitten him. The defense was delivered before a mock judge and jury, and the bedbug was formally acquitted.
16. The Salvation Army Headquarters, 204 Federal St. In a three-story red brick building is the administrative center of the northern New Eng- land Division, embracing 30 corps in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northeastern Massachusetts. The local corps was established in 1884.
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17. The Goddard Homestead, 55 Free St., a brick structure in the classic manner of 1820, has an interesting oval-topped fan-type doorway. The house was built for Henry Goddard, an active Whig who later became prominent in early Maine Republican circles. His son, Charles W. (1825- 89), became the first judge of the Cumberland County Superior Court which was established in February, 1868; appointed to the judgeship by Governor Joshua Chamberlain, he served 31 jury terms between April, 1868, and October, 1871.
18. Site of William Willis House, 81 Free St. The old house was razed in 1925, and a gasoline station erected. William Willis (1794-1870) already was showing promise of becoming one of the legal lights of Maine at the time he entered into law partnership with Prentiss Mellen in 1819. When Maine became an independent State the following year, Mellen was made its first Chief Justice, and the Mellen-Willis partnership was dissolved. Fifteen years later he joined practice with Maine's distinguished Senator William Pitt Fessenden and in 1857 was elected mayor of Portland. Today he is best remembered for his literary work - a two-volume history of Portland, a history of law, courts, and lawyers of Maine, and his editing of the first six volumes of the Collections of the Maine Historical Society (see Litera- ture) .
19. The Isaac Adams House, 99 Free St., built about 1829, has a good ex- ample of a recessed elliptical door with fanlight; one of the windows also has a well-designed fan above it. The original granite steps and a section of the hand-wrought iron rail remain. Isaac Adams (1774-1834), who pub- lished the Portland Gazette in 1806, was active in political affairs of the State for many years.
The razed half of this duplex house was the home of Ashur Ware (1782- 1873), Maine's first Secretary of State. Appointed judge of the U. S. District Court under Governor Albion K. Parris, Ware held this position for nearly a half-century. When he took the bench of the U. S. District Court the rights and duties of seamen, and the authority and responsibility of crews and owners of the American merchant marine, were in great meas- ure unknown and unrecognized by employers and employees. Ware's ad- miralty decisions soon caused clashes, but within a few years jurists com- mended his decrees. In 1839 the first volume of his reports was published, a second volume in 1849. So great was the demand for these legal books that both volumes soon went into their second edition.
20. Site of Daniel Cobb's Boarding House, 105 Free St. During the 1800's
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this street and the surrounding side lanes contained the homes of many of Portland's wealthiest families, where many prominent people were enter- tained. When Lafayette visited Portland in 1825 he lodged overnight in the "elite" boardinghouse of Daniel Cobb, a housewright who had served in Peter Warren's militia company during the 1778 Bagaduce Expedition of the Revolutionary War. The old house was razed in 1922.
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