USA > Maine > Cumberland County > Portland > Portland city guide > Part 29
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the organization became world-wide under the title of International Chris- tian Endeavor.
2. The Mclellan School, 14-20 Carroll St., is a square brick building erected in 1886 and named in honor of Portland's Civil War mayor, Jacob Mclellan (1807-88). The school serves the primary grades and is the third oldest in the city. Jacob Mclellan was born in Portland and began his career as a clerk; he soon abandoned this profession to follow in the steps of his father, a famous sea captain. During these years the younger Mclellan commanded some of the finest vessels that sailed out of Portland harbor. In 1857 he served as State Senator. After the 'Great Fire' of 1866 he managed the relief fund for the sufferers.
3. The Butler School, 16 West St., is a two-story brick building erected in 1879 as a grammar school and named in honor of Moses M. Butler (1824- 79), the incumbent mayor.
4. The Andrews Memorial Tablet, cor. Pine and West Sts., stands in the .05-acre Andrews Square and was presented to the city by the Portland Rotary Club December 14, 1921. The tablet honors Sergeant Harold Tay- lor Andrews (1893-1917) the first Maine man killed in the World War, who died in action at Couzeaucourt, near Cambria, France. He served in Company B, 11th Regiment, New York Engineers.
5. The Hopkins-Milliken House, 73 Brackett St., is a three-story building with front and back walls of brick and side walls of wood. Erected in 1807 by James D. Hopkins (1773-1840), prominent Portland lawyer, it was called "Hopkin's Folly" because it was so large a house and at that time considered so far out of town. The house was purchased in 1864 by Charles R. Milliken (1833-1906), who came to Portland in 1854 and entered the grocery jobbing business with F. A. Shaw and Company. When Shaw re- tired Milliken took over the business under his own name. In 1881 he pur- chased and became president of the Portland Rolling Mills; six years later he bought the plant of the Dennison Paper Company in Mechanic Falls and organized the Poland Paper Company.
6. The Site of the Commodore Edward Tyng House, 163 Danforth St., is now occupied by the Elias Thomas house, a 19th century flat-roofed brick building with four chimneys. Commodore Edward Tyng (1683-1755) was an English naval hero who distinguished himself in the French and Indian Wars, rising to the rank of senior officer in the Massachusetts navy. He took part in the expedition against Fort Royal, captured a French pri-
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vateer that was raiding along the coast, and fought at the siege of Louis- burg. He was made commander of the frigate Massachusetts and later headed a squadron that assisted in the capture of the French warship Vigilante. Elias Thomas (1771-1872), the builder of the present house, was engaged in shipping and trading.
7. The Portland Terminal Company, 468 Commercial St., a subsidiary of the Maine Central Railroad, was established in 1912 to consolidate the facilities of the Maine Central and the Boston and Maine railroads. The company owns all the steam railroad property in Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook, with the exception of that owned by the Canadian Na- tional Railways.
Providing terminal, passenger, freight, and wharf facilities for both rail- roads, each has equal rights to the use of the company's equipment which provides chiefly for the transshipment of pulpwood, baled pulp, china clay, coal, lumber, and sulphur.
Wharf No. 1 has a total frontage of 1,000 feet, berthing space for three steamers, and is equipped with a modern plant for discharging and for- warding general cargo; its storage shed has a capacity of 24,000 tons of baled pulp. Adjacent to this shed is an office building housing the superin- tendent of wharves, shed foreman, stevedores, and U. S. Customs. Wharf No. 2, with berthing for one steamer and trackage for 80 cars, has recently been sold to the Casco Wharf & Storage Co. Directly upstream, Wharf No. 3 has a frontage of 1,500 feet, berthing space for four steamers and was designed for the handling of china clay, pulpwood, timber, scrap iron, and other commodities. Built in 1930, Wharf No. 4 was ranked at its completion among the most modern and efficient coal handling plants on the Atlantic seaboard. This plant, directly across the harbor from Wharf No. 3, is located on Turner's Island, South Portland.
8. The Portland-South Portland Bridge, foot of Brackett St., is a rein- forced concrete structure opened to the public July 1, 1916, and is locally known as the Million Dollar Bridge. The earliest span on this site was a rude wooden bridge built on piles in 1823 by a local corporation headed by Elias Thomas (see above: No. 6). Toll rates were two cents for persons on foot and six cents for horses; men on military duty were allowed free pas- sage. The drawbridge was free to all vessels except pleasure craft. In 1851 the structure became toll-free, its maintenance devolving upon Cumberland County. Railroad tracks once crossed the span, and with the growth of these lines and resultant multiplication of tracks, the Portland approach be- came so hazardous that it was long known as the Gridiron of Death.
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9. The Portland Gas Light Company Works, 40 West Commercial St., were set up in 1850, with Francis O. J. Smith (see Woodfords Section: No. 23) as president. Production of coal gas was discontinued in 1938 with the installation of two Semet-Solvay water gas machines, each capable of pro- ducing three and one-half million cubic feet of carburated gas daily. Ample reserves are stored in the company's four gas holders, three of these at the plant, and the other on St. James Street, Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook are served by 168 miles of mains.
10. St. Louis Church (Polish Catholic), 279 Danforth St., in English Gothic style with a tower, was completed in 1927. Built of brick with limestone trimmings, the ornamental niche over the entrance contains a statue of the patron of the church, St. Louis. There are four schoolrooms on the lower floor.
11. The Home for Aged Women, 64 Emery St., was organized in 1854, and, aided by the churches of the city which raised a large part of the capital, it began operations two years later in a small house at the corner of Elm and Oxford streets. In 1872 the home moved to its present loca- tion. A three-story addition, designed by Frederick A. Tompson to con- form with the original building, was built in 1913.
12. Western Cemetery, Western Promenade, Danforth and Vaughan Sts. For more than a century the small cemetery on Munjoy Hill was the only burial ground in the town. By 1829 it afforded no further burial facilities, with the result that the town then purchased ten acres on the southern slope of Bramhall Hill for this purpose; two more acres were acquired at later dates. Until Mount Calvary cemetery was purchased in 1857 Catholics were buried in the southern part of Western Cemetery, and the Catholic Church still owns 17 of the 29 acres in this burial ground. The memorial gateway, in a style familiar in English cemeteries, was erected in 1914 to the memory of Edward H. Davies (1818-1909) ; built of random rubble stone from Trundy's Reef, it was designed by John Calvin Stevens. On the northern side of the cemetery are the granite Hillside Tombs, in one of which is interred Stephen Longfellow (1776-1849), father of the poet, and in another, John Neal (see Literature) .
Prominent among the monuments is one of granite erected by the pupils of Master Jackson's school as a tribute to their teacher, Henry Jackson (1783- 1850), who taught in the Grammar School for Boys for 50 years.
13. The Maine Publicity Bureau, 3 St. John St., designed by John P. Thomas, was officially opened in November, 1936. Of brick with granite
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trim, it was built by WPA funds on a lot donated to the city for a park by the heirs of the John B. Brown (1805-81) estate, but they agreed to permit the use of it for a tourist bureau of information; it is leased from the city by the Maine Publicity Bureau.
The Rotary Traffic Circle, St. John St. at Danforth St., is the first traffic circle to be built in the State. Completed in 1939 as a U. S. Federal Aid Grade Crossing project, the plans were furnished by the Bridge Division of the Maine State Highway Commission. The three-ton anchor, symboliz- ing the part Portland has played in shipping, was the gift of the Propellor Club of the United States, Port of Portland. Sodium luminaires give dis- tinctive and intense illumination for night driving.
14. Vaughan's Bridge, foot of Danforth and St. John Sts., sometimes called "Kerosene Bridge," was named for William Vaughan (1745-1826) who was one of the promoters in the building of the original bridge that spanned Fore River at this point. First known as Portland Bridge, it was built of cobwork cribs filled with rock and sunk to serve as piers. The original structure was opened as a toll bridge in 1800 and became a free bridge 53 years later. The present iron and steel Vaughan's Bridge was completed in 1908.
15. Western Promenade, 431 Danforth St. to 1 Arsenal St., was acquired by the city in 1836. More than one hundred feet wide and over a thousand yards long, this thoroughfare is laid out on the highest ground in Portland, 175 feet above sea level. Many of the fine homes along the Promenade were built by early business and professional men of the city. Three markers, placed in the early half of the 19th century by the United States Geodetic Survey Service, one at each end of the Promenade and one in the center in perfect alignment, mark the true meridian of the earth's sur- face, longitude 70° 16', used by engineers to determine the variation of the magnetic needle. The seven-ton granite boulder on the southwestern end was erected by the Frothingham Post Veterans of Foreign Wars in mem- ory of Lieutenant Philip B. Frothingham (1894-1918), who died in France and for whom the Post is named. Almost opposite the West Street entrance is an heroic bronze statue of Thomas Brackett Reed (1839-1902) (see Munjoy Hill Section: No. 8) .
16. The Maine General Hospital School of Nursing, 135 Chadwick St., was, at the beginning of the 20th century, the home of the Portland School for Medical Instruction. The Medical School of Maine, founded in 1820, was under the control and supervision of Bowdoin College, and in 1899
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this institution decided the last two years of the course should be given in this city. From 1909 until Bowdoin College discontinued its medical course in 1921 the Maine School of Medicine was carried on at this address. The Portland University, which conferred degrees in commercial and sec- retarial science, occupied these quarters from 1922-25, and three years later it was acquired by the Maine General Hospital for use as a school of nurs- ing.
17. The Reservoir, Bramhall, at Brackett St., was built by the Portland Water Company (see Woodfords Section: No. 36) in 1869, a year after the water of Sebago Lake was piped to the city. The reservoir has a capacity of 8,000,000 gallons, serves no particular part of the city, but is kept filled in case of emergency.
18. The Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary, 79 Bramhall St., was established in 1885 in quarters on Federal Street. It outgrew the original location and in six years moved to its new building on Bramhall Street, designed by John Calvin Stevens. Established primarily for the treatment of eye and ear cases, it is now a general hospital.
19. The Maine General Hospital, 22 Arsenal St., is built on the site of the old State Arsenal. In 1867 Dr. Samuel H. Tewksbury (1819-80), newly elected president of the Maine Medical Association, suggested in his in- augural address the need of a hospital for Portland; the following year the Maine General Hospital was incorporated. The four-story central build- ing, to which wings have been added with the growth of the institution, was designed by Francis H. Fassett and completed in 1874. It is a State-spon- sored institution, three of its nine trustees being appointed by the Governor and six by the corporation.
Within the past decade the hospital has been remodeled, re-equipped, and a new wing added. It has a 293-bed capacity and offers medical, surgical, obstetrical, urological, orthopedic, dermatalogical, gynecological, ophthal- mological, neurological, ear, nose and throat, pediatric, and dental serv- ices. The hospital also maintains special clinics for asthma, gastroenterol- ogy, cardiograph, mental hygiene, diabetes, and tuberculosis, and acquired a Drinkler respirator (iron lung) in 1931.
20. The Union Station, 242-296 St. John St., designed by the Boston firm of Bradley, Winslow, and Witherell in a style similar to French chateaux, was completed in 1888. Prior to the building of this station trains from Boston came across the Eastern Division bridge, turned on a Y, and
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backed into the station on Commercial, at the foot of State Street; there was no arrangement for through car service between the Maine Central and the Boston and Maine. A newspaper clipping of that date reveals the sentiment of the city anent the new station: "At the time operations began for the building of the new Union Passenger Station where it now stands, the Congress Street Station was established to 'break in' the people of Portland to the new condition of things, for it was a radical change to es- tablish a road's terminal so widely separated from the old and so far out of town, as it then appeared to the public."
21. The Exposition Building, 239 Park Ave., a red-brick auditorium with a seating capacity of 5,000, was designed by Frederick A. Tompson. It was erected in 1914 by the Exposition Building Association, to whom the city leased the property. Built at a cost of $80,944, the structure is 206 feet long, 132 feet wide, and contains 26,358 square feet of floor space. Al- though the city now owns the building, the Exposition Building Associa- tion holds a 25-year lease with the privilege of renewal for an additional 25 years.
22. The Portland Park Dept. Greenhouse, 227 Park Ave., was built in 1910 for the purpose of raising flowers and shrubs for the city's parks and boulevards. Under its 7,500 square feet of glass the greenhouse produces about thirty varieties of annual flower plants and a like quantity of bedding material to supply 130 plots within the city. In conjunction with this pro- gram, the city maintains a nursery at Payson Park which supplies decidu- ous and evergreen trees as well as numerous varieties of evergreen shrubs (see Woodfords Section: No. 11) .
23. The Maine Institution for the Blind, 199 Park Ave., is an industrial plant employing blind people in the State and furnishing them board and room as part of their regular wages. The institution consists of three build- ings: the workshop, known as the Ryan Building in memory of the founder of the institution, William Ryan (1864-1936) ; the Woman's Dormitory; and the Superintendent's house. All three structures are of red brick with limestone trim. A dormitory for men is maintained at 84 Deering Avenue on a lot owned by the institution.
The Maine Institution for the Blind was incorporated in 1905, and the buildings were erected three years later; during the first years of the institu- tion five men worked in one room of a local office. Brooms and mattresses manufactured in the present plant are sold throughout the State; chair caneing and rush seating are also done there, and employment is given to an
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average of 34 men and women between the ages of 18 and 50. In the work- shop, operations are carried on much as in any industrial plant except that ropes are hung to guide the workers. Each dormitory room has a radio, and literature in Braille is provided.
24. Portland High School Stadium and Memorial Gateway, 178-182 Deer- ing Ave. Formerly known as Richardson Field, this area was leased to Portland High School by the city in 1930; the following year a concrete grandstand was built overlooking a football gridiron and cinder track. In 1932 bleachers were erected opposite the grandstand, giving the stadium a combined seating capacity of 8,250. The Memorial Gateway, marking the main entrance, was given by Mrs. Clara Dyer Foster in memory of her son, James Franklin Dyer (1876-1924) .
25. Deering Oaks, 7-157 Park Ave. This park was initiated in 1879 when a part of the area was donated to the city by Nathaniel and Henry Deer- ing and other property owners. Subsequent purchases of property ad- joining the original grant gradually increased its size until, with the last purchase in 1922, the completed land acquisition totalled 53.70 acres. Colloquially called "The Oaks," because of the numerous trees of that species, it is the largest of the city's parks and a favorite recreation center for Portlanders both in summer and winter. The duck house in the cen- ter of the pond was presented to the park in 1899 by the Portland Car- penters Union; the four European swans it houses are wintered in the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, when the pond becomes a skating field. The flower circle in the eastern section contains many well-known and rare varieties of annuals and perennials.
Near the bandstand is a tree with a slate marker on which is inscribed: "Here the brave followers of Major Church died in battle with the Indians Sept. 28, 1689." In September, 1689, one of Falmouths' prominent citi- zens wrote to Boston that there were 200 Indians on Palmer (Peak) Island. On the 20th of that month these were joined by another band from the north, and in the night this combined force moved to the mainland to An- thony Brackett's estate, on the site of Deering Oaks. Major Benjamin Church had arrived from Massachusetts a short time before this, and one of the Brackett boys ran to him to give the alarm that the Indians were about to attack the settlement. Church and his men immediately moved on the Indians, and in the fierce battle that followed routed the savages, who re- treated with their dead and wounded. A letter, written by Church on the day of the battle and preserved in the Massachusetts archives, lists 21 in- habitants of the settlement wounded or slain.
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26. The White Memorial Church, 75 Grant St., is a plain, brown shingled church named in honor of Sister Ellen Gould Harmon White (1827-1915) , one of the early prophets of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Her par- ents were Methodist Episcopals who had severed their connection with that church in 1843, their decided Second Advent views having been influenced by the teachings of William Miller who lectured in Portland in 1840 and 1842. Born in Gorham, Ellen White lived in Portland during her child- hood, when she began to receive what were considered to be "miraculous" visions from the Lord (see Religion) .
27. The Church of the Sacred Heart, 65 Mellen St., of red brick, with portico and supporting columns of Indiana limestone, was designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Francis H. and Edward F. Fassett and com- pleted in 1913. Between the two towers are three shrines with statues of the Sacred Heart, St. John, and the Virgin Mary - sculptored from Car- rara marble. Steel framework, eliminating the use of pillars in the interior, allows an unobstructed view of the altars, also made of Carrara marble. The windows, designed and executed in the New York studios of Mon- tague-Castle-London Co., depict the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Resur- rection, the Presentation, and the Ascension. The Stations of the Cross, the work of the Boston sculptor, Hugh Cairns, are said to be the finest set of plastic decorations of their kind in New England.
28. The former Baxter Homestead, 61 Deering St., now an apartment house, was built about 1868 and was the home of James Phinney Baxter (1831-1921) (see Literature). Many of his children were born in this house, including Percival Proctor Baxter, Governor of Maine (1921-25) and donor of Katahdin Park. After finishing his schooling the elder Bax- ter started in business with William G. Davis, and in 1861 the partners united with the firm of Rumery and Burnham to form the Portland Pack- ing Company when it was found that vegetables could be canned success- fully. Baxter amassed a fortune through this and other business connec- tions and was prominently identified with banking. His interests were manifold; he was founder of the Associated Charities Society, the Portland Society of Art, and was for many years president of the Maine Historical Society. Mayor of Portland for six years, James Phinney Baxter was ac- tive in suppressing the liquor traffic in the city. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Bowdoin College in 1881 and that of Doctor of Literature in 1904.
29. The Neal Dow Homestead, 714 Congress St., a two and one-half story brick house of Colonial design, was built by Neal Dow (1804-97) in 1824.
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Its interior is typically colonial in both architecture and furnishings; it is expected the house will eventually become the property of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Maine as a shrine to the memory of the father of the Maine Law.
Neal Dow was born of Quaker parents in the two and one-half story frame house at 717 Congress Street. He was educated at "dame's schools" during his early years, progressing to Master Hall's school on Spring near State Street, and later to Master Taylor's on Union Street, transferring to the Portland Academy on Congress Street, east of Temple. Master Cushman taught at this school where young Neal was a classmate of Henry W. Longfellow and his brother, Stephen, Commodore Preble's son, Edward, the Brooks brothers, Erastus and James, who rose to journalistic and poli- tical heights in New York, and Sumner Cummings who became a noted Portland physician.
Young Dow was denied a college training because of the Quaker attitude that "a college education was a device of the adversary, and was to be ob- tained only at great peril to the immortal soul." His schooling finished at 16, he started work in his father's tannery, but kept up reading to com- pensate for his lack of a college training. With his father he went to every session of the Constitutional Convention that sat in Portland perparatory to Maine becoming a separate State, and in his early twenties joined the Portland Atheneum, a literary society; he was one of its first secretaries.
Dow joined the Volunteer fire department when he was 18 and served for more than twenty-five years. He campaigned vigorously to correct liquor conditions in the City and State and in 1846 was rewarded by having a prohibitory law passed by the State Legislature; however, the law was not stringent enough and was ignored. During the next five years Dow's un- remitting efforts converted many to his views and while mayor of Portland in 1850 he wrote what became the Maine Law passed in 1851. He was sub- jected to all manner of humiliating affronts for his temperance activities, but made many friends for the earnestness and sincerity that prompted his actions. He made four trips abroad which resulted in the United Kingdom Alliance being formed to help similar legislation in England.
Dow served another term as mayor of Portland (1855-6) and at the fall of Fort Sumter enlisted and was commissioned colonel of the Thirteenth regi- ment of Maine volunteers. Promoted to brigadier general he was wounded twice during the siege of Port Huron, Louisiana. He was captured one evening while returning from the front to get some needed articles at the house at which he was staying; being unarmed and surrounded by a num-
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ber of men, he surrendered and was brought to Libby Prison, where he re- mained a prisoner for eight months and two weeks, being exchanged for General Fitzhugh Lee.
The remainder of Neal Dow's life was in the temperance field; he traveled throughout the United States and Great Britain speaking for the cause, wrote innumerable letters to the press setting forth his views on the subject, and continued this labor until he was 90 years old.
30. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 61 Neal St., of Caledonian brick with Indiana limestone trim, and of Georgian architecture, was designed by Brigham, Coveney, and Bisbee of Boston. Construction of the building be- gan in 1909, but services were held for the first time in March, 1915. The organ was installed in 1926 (see Religion) .
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