USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 25
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21. Mechanics Hall, 519 Congress St., was built in 1859 from designs by Thomas J. Sparrow in the Greek Revival style. The three-story granite structure is the home of the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association, an organization formed in 1815 by a group of local mechanics for charitable and educational purposes. In recent years the society has included business and professional men in its membership.
In addition to a small but valuable library, the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association sponsors a series of lectures during the fall and winter months, and also a free drawing school which specializes in mechanical and archi- tectural drafting instruction. The Library (open week days: summer 2-7 except Sat .; winter 2-9), on the second floor, has more than 22,000 volumes of fiction, history, biography, and reference; the collection includes many rare books of early American authors.
22. The Friends Meeting-House, 83 Oak St., a simple brick building erected in 1895, replaced an earlier frame Quaker meetinghouse. The pul- pit of the new church was made from a cherry tree that shaded the original meetinghouse. A former preacher of this church was George W. Hinckley, who established in 1889 the well-known Good Will Farm in Fairfield town- ship - a semi-charitable institution for boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 20.
23. Walker Manual Training School, 45 Casco St., is part of Portland's public school system and is attended by manual training and eighth grade home economics classes from the city's schools. The modern red-brick building, designed by Frederick A. Tompson of Portland and erected in 1901, was a gift to the city by the trustees of the estate of Joseph Walker (1800-91), unostentatious and often anonymous donor of large sums of money to many charitable organizations. In 1838 he built mills in Sac- carappa (Westbrook) for large-scale lumber manufacture.
24. The Birthplace of Cyrus H. K. Curtis, 69 Brown St., a modest, weather-beaten frame house, is identified by a bronze tablet near the en- trance door. Cyrus Herman Kotzschmar Curtis (1851-1934), editor, pub- lisher of the Saturday Evening Post and other well-known periodicals, is
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remembered in the State as an outstanding philanthropist and for his cul- tural activities in education and music by the country at large. By the time he was 13 he had already started on a career which would eventually make him a leader in the publishing world. At that early age he was the owner of an old-fashioned hand-printing press. As editor, reporter, compositor, and pressman, he issued Young America, a small paper which he distributed in the neighborhood. In A Man From Maine, Edward Bok relates an anec- dote regarding Curtis' first venture into advertising, with his Young America: "One day a man asked Cyrus how much he charged for adver- tisements. The boy had not reached that problem in his business, but na- turally he was not going to disclose this fact to a prospective advertiser. 'Ten cents a square,' was his reply, showing that he meant by a square, about eight to ten lines. 'I'll take a column,' replied the advertiser. ... This departure brought him a very important job of printing some dance orders for a dancing master, which eventually grew so large as to involve a debt of six dollars to the young printer. Much to his surprise he could not collect it. He sent bill after bill, with no response. He spoke to his father about the heavy indebtedness of this customer with whom he knew he was acquainted. His father laughed, and ventured the information that the man was known all over Portland as a 'Dead Beat' who never paid his bills.
"Nothing daunted, the boy was determined that he must wipe off this large indebtedness from his books, and he called at the house of the dancing master. . . . In answer the man kicked the boy down the steps, and slammed the door behind him. ... The next day the young printer was again at the dancing master's house, this time at five o'clock in the morning. Wild-eyed, the man came down half-dressed, and seeing the boy before him roundly cursed him for his untimely visit. But something in the look in the boy's eyes told that the following morning would probably find him there again, and with a mental picture of his early sleep disturbed on successive morn- ings, he pulled a roll of bills out of his pocket, gave the boy six dollars, and once more kicked him down the front steps."
Young Curtis' printing business was completely shattered in 1866, when Portland's "Great Fire" destroyed the shed in which his printing press had been placed. So heartbroken was he over the loss, that it is said the maxim he used throughout his life was created - "Yesterday ended last night."
25. Jewish Community Center, 341 Cumberland Ave. This five-story red- brick building trimmed with limestone, built in 1910 and formerly the Pythian Temple, was purchased in 1938 by the Jewish people of Portland as a Community Center for recreational and cultural purposes. The Cen-
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ter's little-theater movement, with its own workshop, has done much to in- crease local interest in the drama.
26. Preble Chapel, 331 Cumberland Ave., a small stucco building erected in 1899, designed by John Kirby, occupies the site of the original Unitarian chapel constructed in 1851. Within the chapel is an oil painting by an un- known 16th and 17th century Spanish artist, portraying parts of The Book of Revelations.' Brought to Portland in 1830 aboard a ship from a South American port and offered for sale, it was quickly purchased at a ridiculous- ly low figure by Commodore Edward Preble, who realized its artistic value.
27. Site of Simeon Greenleaf's House, NE cor. Elm St. and Cumberland Ave. Its owner, Simeon Greenleaf (1783-1853), won his legal spurs in many law cases in Maine courts, and his text books brought high praise from lawyers, judges, and justices throughout the country. Greenleaf's law li- brary of approximately 1,600 volumes was presented after his death to the Cumberland Bar Association. The house was burned in the Portland fire of 1866.
28. The Portland Boys' Club, 277 Cumberland Ave., a two-story brick structure designed by John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, was constructed in 1930-31. In striking contrast to the two earlier humble homes of the organization, this clubhouse was made possible through the generous gift of Cyrus H. K. Curtis, who contributed $100,000, and was built on land donated by Edward W. Hannaford, a local wholesale mer- chant. The building and its equipment is valued at $371,000. Activities of the club, in addition to the regular gymnasium and swimming schedules, include games and recreational programs and group contests in each sport sponsored. The present club membership comprises 3,164 boys, representa- tive of 30 nationalities, and has an aggregate annual attendance of more than 80,000.
29. Portland High School, 284 Cumberland Ave. This gray tapestry-brick structure, designed by the local firm of Miller and Mayo with G. Henri Desmond, of Boston, as associate architect, remodeled and enlarged in 1918 from an earlier building, is constructed in the form of an E. Four stories high, with a basement containing a splendid gymnasium, the building has 84 study and class halls and an auditorium with a seating capacity of 2,000. The first high school session in which boys and girls were jointly taught was September 14, 1863; previously the city had maintained separate high school buildings for them. When the school was opened in 1863, joint teaching of the sexes was still looked upon locally with some suspicion, and to overcome
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this, the building was constructed with a solid wall separating it into two parts (see Education) .
Over study room doors at each end of the main corridor on the first floor are murals depicting the history of Portland's high school, the work of Thomas Thorne, a graduate of the school in 1927.
30. The Chestnut Street Methodist Church, 11-17 Chestnut St., has long been known as the Mother Church of Maine Methodism, many of its pas- tors having gone from its pulpit to occupy new parishes in other parts of Maine. The present church, dating from 1859, dedicated 66 years after Jesse Lee rode horseback into Portland to preach the first Methodist ser- mon (see Religion), is representative Gothic in style; record of its designer has been lost. National attention has been drawn by Robert Ripley in his 'Believe It or Not' newspaper feature to the unusual organ in this church which was so constructed that it is a copy of the principal façade of the church. The blue glass in the rose window is said to be priceless because the formula by which it was made has been lost; the window was executed by the local C. H. Farley Glass Company.
31. The Portland City Hall, 389-405 Congress St., was built in 1912 of Maine granite from designs in the Federal style by the New York archi- tectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, with John Calvin Stevens and John Howard Stevens, of Portland, as associate architects. Of the building, John M. Carrere is reported to have said that he would rather have his "reputa- tion as an architect rest upon the Portland City Hall than on any other building" with which he had been connected.
A bronze plaque (L) on the granite steps of the entrance bears an inscrip- tion in memory of the Portland men who served in the Spanish-American and in the World wars; another bronze plaque (R) honors those who lost their lives in the World War. On the wall of the portico are two large bronze plaques, one (L) describes briefly the history of the city; the other (R) tells the story of the earlier buildings that occupied this site. The wrought-iron gates of the principal entrance include in their design the fabled Phoenix and the dolphins of the seal of the City of Portland. The three main floors of the building are occupied by municipal offices and chambers.
The main foyer, entered from Congress Street, is of simple classic design in white marble and has a splendid curving staircase leading to the upper floor. On the (R) wall of the staircase hangs a portrait of Cyrus H. K. Curtis, a copy by John F. Brown of the original portrait by John E. Parting-
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ton, of Philadelphia; immediately below the portrait is a plaque honoring the noted publisher for his gift of the Kotzschmar organ to the city (see below). In the City Manager's office suite, on the second floor, are portraits and photographs of the mayors who held office when Portland had the mayorality form of government; also, in these offices is a portrait by Walter Gilman Page of Neal Dow, father of Maine's prohibitory law, and a bust by Franklin Simmons of James Phinney Baxter, Maine's historian and onetime mayor of Portland. The Maine State Chamber of Commerce maintains an office on the third floor.
In the Auditorium (entrance on Myrtle Street) is the Kotzschmar Memor- ial Organ, presented to the city in 1912 by Cyrus H. K. Curtis. This organ, given in memory of the city's famous Professor Hermann Kotzschmar, or- ganist, composer, and teacher for more than fifty years (see Music), was at the time of its installation comparable in regard to tone and resources to other large organs in the world. Actually six organs, all of which may be played simultaneously from a central keyboard, the organ has more than 5,000 pipes, varying in length from one-half inch to 32 feet, and in diameter from one-quarter inch to 21 inches. In the center of the organ casing is a bronze bust of Kotzschmar, by Charles Grafly; directly beneath is a bronze plaque framing a glass enclosure containing a page of the original manu- script of Kotzschmar's Te Deum in F and the composer's baton.
First to occupy the site of the present city hall was the one-story frame courthouse erected by Cumberland County in 1786, to which a second story was added two years later. The first floor was an open hall in which were stored the gallows, stocks, and pillory when not in use. In front of the building stood the whipping post, with bars for securing the culprit's arms and legs. One of the early major cases tried was that of Thomas Bird for piracy and murder. Charged with having shot and killed the captain of the ship on which he served as a seaman, he soon confessed to the crime, justifying his actions because of the captain's extreme cruelty toward his crew. Although Bird was judged guilty and sentenced to be hanged, his counsel immediately applied for a pardon for his client on the grounds that Bird's case was the first capital conviction in a United States Maritime Court. This petition for pardon was forwarded to President Washington who denied its application, and on June 25, 1790, Bird was hanged on a gallows set up at the corner of Congress and Grove streets.
In 1795 Cumberland County purchased land adjoining the rear of the courthouse and erected a jail. From this jail in 1808 Joseph Drew, of Saccarappa, who had murdered a deputy sheriff, walked to a gallows erected near Portland Observatory, one-half mile distant. He was accompanied by
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the county sheriff on one side commenting on the mortal sin he had com- mitted, and Parson Caleb Bradley, of Stroudwater, on the other side ad- vising him of the glory of the spiritual world into which he would soon enter. The jail was razed in 1859.
Following the sale of the courthouse to the Freewill Baptist Association in 1816 a new county courthouse of brick was built, two projecting wings be- ing added to the original 50- by 60-foot building in the next 15 years. On a near-by lot previously purchased by the county a group of Portland citi- zens erected Maine's first State Capitol in 1820. The lower floor contained rooms for the new State's officers, while the upper floor housed the Senate Chamber and offices of the Governor and his Executive Council. The courtroom of the near-by county courthouse served as the first Representa- tives' Hall. Maine's Legislature held its sessions in these quarters until the seat of State government was moved to Augusta in 1831. On the occasion of General Lafayette's visit to Portland in June, 1825, the reception was held on a platform erected before the portico of this early statehouse. When Augusta became the capital of Maine the City of Portland took over the old statehouse and in 1849 moved its municipal offices into it.
Prior to 1858 the old statehouse was moved across the street, and in 1862 a new city-county building stood on its former site. Four years after the completion of this building the 'Great Fire' swept through the city, de- stroying the old statehouse and partially burning the new edifice. By 1868 another building arose on the walls of the partially destroyed city-county structure, but less than a half-century later it was again swept by fire and reduced to ashes. Following this fire the municipal offices were located in various parts of the city until the present city hall was completed.
Today the City Hall is the center of many activities in addition to those of city government. From the auditorium stage are heard most of the visiting musical artists, orchestras, and lecturers who come during the winter months. From it and from the platforms of the earlier buildings that have stood on the site have been heard many noted people: Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Dickens, Matthew Arnold, Neal Dow, Emma Eames, Madame Melba, Paderewski, Hannibal Hamlin, James G. Blaine, President Mc- Kinley, Pavlova, and many other noted national and international celebrities.
32. The Second Parish Presbyterian Church, 371 Congress St., a stone and brick structure of the Romanesque order, was completed in 1875 as a me- morial to Dr. Edward Payson (1783-1827), for 20 years pastor of the earlier Second Parish Church that stood on the corner of Middle and Deer streets and was destroyed in the 'Great Fire' of 1866. In the present church
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is a bookcase once owned by Midshipman Kirvin Waters, who died from wounds received in the naval battle between America's Enterprise and England's Boxer (see Munjoy Hill Section: No. 5). A stained glass window in the vestry is a memorial to two foreign missionaries, Mary S. Morrill (1863-1900), a member of the Second Parish, and Annie A. Gould (1867- 1900), of the Bethel Chapel, who were massacred during the Boxer Rebel- lion in China; the window, depicting 'The Sermon on the Mount,' was exe- cuted by the local C. H. Farley Glass Co. from the original design by Al- fred Schraff, onetime art director of Portland's L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Art Museum.
33. The Central Fire Station, 380 Congress St., was built in 1923 to house the administrative headquarters of the Portland Fire Department and the apparatus of the downtown district. The city's fire-fighting force dates from 1768 when citizens of old Falmouth voted to appoint several fire wards whose duty it should be to look after and direct citizens during fires (see Government). In 1787 the town's first fire engine was shipped here from England. The first mechanized apparatus was placed in operation in 1902 with the arrival of a "horseless engine." Today the Portland Fire Depart- ment consists of 120 trained men. In addition to the Central Fire Station, there are nine substations including the Portland fireboat, and one sub- station on Peak Island. The equipment consists of ten motor-driven engines having a combined total pumping capacity of 7,750 gallons of water per minute, two combination ladder trucks, three aerial trucks, one chemical booster truck, and 15 other pieces of apparatus with six pieces in reserve. The present fireboat was placed in operation in the harbor in 1931.
34. The Federal Courthouse, Federal, Market, Pearl, and Newbury Sts., completed in 1911, is Renaissance in design, with the definite French flavor characteristic of much of the work of James Knox Taylor, supervising architect of the U. S. Treasury. The building is constructed of New Hamp- shire granite with interior trim of Vermont marble. In addition to many local offices of the Federal Government, the courthouse contains a sub- station of the post office system. The U. S. Supreme Court Chamber, on the second floor, entered from 156 Federal St., is striking architecturally.
The Federal Court in Maine dates from the creation of the United States District Court in 1789. For many years it was without a permanent home, but in 1849 the Federal Government purchased the old Exchange Building for court purposes. When this building was burned in 1854 the court once again was without a permanent local seat until the erection of the present structure.
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35. The Stanley T. Pullen Fountain, Federal St. opposite Federal Court- house, familiarly called "The Bubble" by Portland's children, is of classic design in granite, resting on a 12-foot base and ornamented by six dolphins. The fountain was designed by George Burnham (1843-1903) of Portland and executed by the New Hampshire Granite Company. Stanley Thomas Pullen (1843-1910) , lawyer, politician, and onetime editor of the Portland Daily Press, was one of the incorporators of the Portland Society for Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals which was organized in May, 1872. It is said that Pullen was instrumental in the formation of the Maine Society for the Protection of Animals with which the local society merged in 1891.
36. The Press Herald Building, 119 Exchange and 177 Federal Sts., of seven stories, was built in 1923 from designs by the architectural firm of Desmond and Lord of Boston and houses the headquarters of the Gannett Publishing Company, Maine's largest newspaper publishers, as well as the newspaper plants of its local newssheets. With 64-page type presses, cap- able of printing 36,000 copies an hour, the plant puts out the morning Port- land Press Herald, the Portland Evening Express, and the Portland Sunday Telegram.
37. The Peabody Law School, 110 Exchange St., was established in 1927 as a day law school and seven years later was incorporated as the Peabody Law Classes, a non-profit educational institution. The prescribed course is three years, and since 1937 the requirements for admission were raised to a min- imum of two years' college training. In January, 1939, the State Legisla- ture authorized a change of name to the Peabody Law School and granted it the right to bestow the degree of Bachelor of Law. The school, the only one of its type in Maine, was founded by Judge Webster Peabody, a grad- uate of Harvard Law School who was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1896. Peabody held the professorship of law at the University of Maine from 1916-23, was judge of Portland Municipal Court from 1923-27, and was commissioner for the revision of Maine statutes from 1927-30.
38. The Old Post Office Building, 169 Middle St., erected in 1871, is said to be one of the few white marble postoffice buildings owned by the U. S. Government. Built of Vermont marble in a lavish Roman style, with pil- lars of the Corinthian order on the principal façade, the structure cost more than $500,000. It has not been used for postal service since 1934 when new quarters were provided in another part of the city (see below: No. 60). In recent years the building has been converted into armories and offices for the activities of the Naval and Marine Reserves of Portland and vicinity; it was officially turned over to the U. S. Navy in 1939.
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39. Site of Morehead Tavern, 193 Middle St. This hostelry was well known in the 1800's as a stage stop. Sometime during the 1830's it became a temperance house, and to it flocked many of the early ardent drys of the town. In 1837, however, Parson Caleb Bradley, of the Stroudwater Congre- gational Church, hastened home from Portland to record petulantly in his diary: "I dined today . . . at Morehead's Temperance Tavern. Morehead says he must open the bar again for he cannot be supported. The temper- ance people will rather give their custom to rum taverns than to temperance houses."
40. The Bosworth Memorial (open week days 9-12 and 1-5; adm. free) , 44 Free St., is the center of local G.A.R. activities. Built about 1820 in the classic manner, this brick building has an especially striking elliptical re- cessed entrance with fanned doorway and side lights. On the greensward, at the corner of Free and Cotton streets, are two brass howitzers from a Civil War ship, a cannon from the English brig Boxer which was defeated by the American Enterprise in September, 1813, and an unidentified piece of ship armament.
Within the building is a large collection of Civil War relics, among them the shell that killed Frederic William Bosworth (1843-63), of Company A, 17th Maine Volunteers, at Wapping Heights, Virginia; the memorial is named in his honor. Included in the collection are: a belaying pin from Admiral Farragut's flagship Hartford; the level from the famous Swamp Angel gun of the Confederate forces, which had the same reputation for long-distance firing during the Civil War that the German Big Bertha had during the World War; and the first bugle issued to a Maine outfit in the war between the States. On an upper floor, in glass cases, are the original parade flag made in 1867 for the Bosworth Post, G.A.R., and several tat- tered battle flags carried by Maine troops during the Civil War. Near the flag cases hangs a painting, believed to be the work of Isaac W. Fisher Eaton, depicting the 'Charge of the 1st Maine Cavalry at Brandy Station, Virginia.'
The G.A.R. groups which use this memorial as their headquarters are: Shepley Camp, Sons of Veterans, Annie A. Gould Tent, Daughters of Veterans, Bosworth Relief Corps, Thatcher Relief Corps, and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic.
41. Elks Club, 92-98 Free St. This three-story brick structure has been the Portland home of The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks since 1908. As early as 1890 plans were made to inaugurate an Elks lodge in Maine, but it was not until the following year that a charter was granted to the
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Portland petitioners. The site upon which the clubhouse stands has many historic associations. About 1776 the so-called Upper Battery, a fortifica- tion constructed to repel any attack by the British, was erected here and commanded by Benjamin Miller. Following the Revolution Nathaniel Deering built a windmill on the site of the dismantled Upper Battery; for many years this slight incline was called Windmill Hill. In 1803 a private mansion was erected on this site, which was later purchased by John F. Anderson (1792-1858), Portland's third mayor. For several years after 1859 one-half of the Anderson mansion was used as the Home Institute, a private school. Remodeled under the supervision of the local architect, Austin W. Pease, the mansion became the present Elks Club.
42. Cheverus Classical High School, 100 Free St. This school for boys is part of the parochial school system of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Port- land. A map of 1882 shows that a brick house on this site was used as a Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum; later the building was altered to become the Convent of Our Lady of Mercy and the St. Elizabeth's Academy for girls. Part of the original building is incorporated in the present structure.
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