Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. Tourists are
drawn to Portland's historic Old Port district along Portland Harbor, which is at the mouth of
the Fore River and part of Casco Bay.
Portland Head Light in nearby Cape
Elizabeth is also a popular tourist draw.
The city seal depicts a phoenix rising out of ashes, which goes with its motto,
Resurgam, Latin for "I will rise again", in reference to Portland's recoveries from four
devastating fires.[1] The city of Portland, Oregon, was named for Portland, Maine.[2]
The Portland Public School District is the largest school system in
Maine. The city is also the county seat of Cumberland County.
History
Portland was originally called "Machigonne" by the native people who first lived there. It was settled by the English
in 1632 as a fishing and trading settlement and renamed Casco. In 1658 its name was changed again, this time to "Falmouth." A monument at the end of Congress Street where it meets
the Eastern Promenade is a tribute to the four historical names for Portland.
In 1675, the village was completely destroyed by the Wampanoag people during King Philip's War. The community
was rebuilt, to be destroyed by the same natives again several years later. On October 18,
1775, the community was destroyed yet again, bombarded during the American Revolutionary War by the Royal Navy under
command of Captain Henry Mowat.[3]
Following the war, a section of Falmouth called "The Neck" developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a
shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and
named it "Portland." Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of
1807 (prohibition of trade with the British) and the War of 1812. In 1820 Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. By this time both the Embargo Act and the war
had ended, and Portland's economy began to recover. In 1832 the capital was moved to
Augusta.
Portland was a center for protests concerning the Maine law of 1851 culminating in the Portland Rum Riot on June 2, 1855.
The Great Fire of July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration,
destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were
left homeless. After this fire, Portland was rebuilt with brick and took on a Victorian appearance. Citizens began building huge Victorian mansions along the city's Western
Promenade.
First National Bank, Middle and Exchange Streets, c. 1910
The quality and style of architecture in Portland is in large part due to the succession of well-known 19th-century architects who worked in the city. Alexander Parris
(1780–1852) arrived about 1800 and left Portland with numerous Federal style buildings, although some would be lost in the 1866 fire. Charles A. Alexander
(1822–1882) provided many designs for Victorian mansions. Henry Rowe (1810–1870) specialized in Gothic cottages. George M. Harding (1827–1910) designed many of the commercial buildings in
Portland's Old Port, as well as many of Portland's ornate residential buildings. Around the turn of the century Frederick A.
Tompson (1857–1906) designed many of Portland's residential buildings.
But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the Western Promenade area were Francis Henry Fassett (1823–1908) and John Calvin Stevens
(1855–1940). Fassett was commissioned to build the Maine General Hospital Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center) and
the Williston West Church as well as many other churches, schools, commercial buildings, apartment buildings, private residences,
and his own duplex home on Pine Street. From the early 1880s to the 1930s Stevens worked in a wide range of styles from the Queen
Anne and Romanesque popular at the beginning of his career, to the
Mission Revival Style of the 1920s,
but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, examples of which abound in this area.
The Victorian style architecture, which was popular during Portland's rebuilding, has been preserved very well by an emphasis
on preservation on the part of the city government. In 1982 the area was entered on the
National Register of Historic Places. In modern lifestyle surveys,
it is often cited as one of America's best small cities to live in.
The erection of the Maine Mall, an indoor shopping
center established in the suburb of South
Portland during the 1970s, had a significant effect on Portland's downtown.
Department stores and other major franchises, many from Congress Street or Free Street,
either moved to the nearby mall or went out of business. This was a mixed blessing for
locals, protecting the city's character (chain stores are often uninterested in it now) but
led to a number of empty storefronts. Residents had to venture out of town for certain products and services no longer available
on the peninsula.
Since the mid-1990s, Maine College of Art has
been a revitalizing force in the downtown area, bringing in students from around the country, and restoring the historic Porteous
building on Congress Street as its main facility. The school has also maintained the Baxter Building, once home to the city's
public library, as a computer lab and photography studio.
Portland is currently experiencing a building boom, though much more controlled and conservative than a previous building boom
during the 1980s. In recent years, Congress Street has become home to more stores and eateries,
spurred on by the expanding Maine College of Art and the conversion of office buildings to high-end condos. Rapid development is
occurring in the city's historically industrial Bayside neighborhood, as well as the emerging harborside Ocean Gateway
neighborhood at the base of Munjoy Hill.[4][5][6]
Northeast from City Hall c. 1910
|
Western Promenade c. 1908
|
Soldiers' Monument c. 1908
|
Old Library c. 1905 (now Baxter Building)
|
Honors
- Ranked #6 on Relocate America's Top 10 Places to Live in 2007.[1]
- Ranked #12 in the world by Frommer's in its list of Top Travel Destinations for 2007.[2]
- Ranked #20 in Inc. Magazine 2006 Boom Town List of Hottest Cities for Entrepreneurs.
- Ranked #7 on the 2005 list of the 100 Best Art Towns in America. (The Countryman Press, April 2005)
- Named #15 in medium sized Top U.S. Cities for Doing Business. In the overall category of small, medium and large
cities combined, out of 25,000 cities examined, Portland ranked #32. (INC. Magazine, May 2005)
- Named #1 Top Market in Small Business Vitality. The study suggests Portland to be the strongest small-business sector
of any large metropolitan area in the United States and ranked it as the hottest small business market in which to develop a
company. (American City Business Journals, January 2005)
- Named #14 in Best Performing Cities index, for its economic vitality based on measures that include employment and
salary growth, with an emphasis on high-tech industries. (Milken Institute, California, November 2004).
A complete list of honors can be found at the City of Portland Economic Developement Center website.
Geography and climate
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 136.2 km² (52.6 mi²). 54.9 km² (21.2 mi²) of it
is land and 81.2 km² (31.4 mi²) of it (59.65%) is water. Portland is located on a peninsula beside Casco Bay on the
Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean.
Portland borders South Portland, Westbrook and Falmouth. The city is located at 43.66713 N,
70.20717 W.
| Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
Avg high °F
(°C) |
31
(-1) |
34
(1) |
42
(6) |
53
(12) |
63
(17) |
73
(23) |
79
(26) |
77
(25) |
69
(21) |
58
(14) |
47
(8) |
36
(2) |
55
(13) |
Avg low °F
(°C) |
12
(-11) |
16
(-9) |
25
(-4) |
35
(2) |
44
(7) |
53
(12) |
59
(15) |
57
(14) |
49
(9) |
37
(3) |
30
(-1) |
19
(-7) |
36
(3) |
Rainfall in inches
(millimeters) |
4.09
(103.9) |
3.14
(79.8) |
4.14
(105.2) |
4.26
(108.2) |
3.82
(97.0) |
3.28
(83.3) |
3.32
(84.3) |
3.05
(77.5) |
3.37
(85.6) |
4.40
(111.8) |
4.72
(119.9) |
4.24
(107.7) |
45.83
(1164.2) |
[3]
Neighborhoods
Eastern Promenade Park, overlooking
Casco Bay
Portland is organized into neighborhoods that are generally recognized by residents, but have no legal or political significance. City signage
does, in many cases, name various neighborhoods or intersections (which are often called corners). Some city neighborhoods have a
local neighborhood association whose self-appointed responsibility is to liaise with the city government on issues affecting the
neighborhood.
Several neighborhoods incorporate the name "Deering" in some way. This is a result of the 1899
merger of Portland with the neighboring city of Deering, which comprised the northern and eastern sections of the city prior to
the merger. Deering High School is also so named as it was formerly the public high
school for Deering.
- Bayside
- Bradley's Corner
- Cushing's Island
- Deering Center
- Downtown
- East Deering
- East Bayside
- East End
- Eastern Cemetery
- Great Diamond Island
- Highlands
- Kennedy Park
- Libbytown
- Lunt's Corner
- Morrill's Corner
- Munjoy Hill
- North Deering
- Oakdale
- Old Port
- Parkside
- Peaks Island
- Riverton
- Rosemont
- Stroudwater
- West End
- Woodford's Corner
Demographics
Gun recovered from the
USS Maine on Munjoy Hill
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 64,250 people, 29,714 households, and 13,549 families
residing in the city. The population density was 1,169.6/km² (3,029.2/mi²). There
were 31,862 housing units at an average density of 580.0/km² (1,502.2/mi²).
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Portland's immediate metropolitan area ranked 147th in the nation in 2000 with a
population of 243,537, while the Portland/South Portland/Biddeford greater metropolitan area included 489,343 total inhabitants.
This has increased to an estimated 510,791 inhabitants as of 2004. Much of this increase in population has been due to growth in
the city's southern and western suburbs.
The racial makeup of the city was 91.27% White, 3.08%
Asian, 2.59% African American, 0.47% Native American, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.67% from other races, and 1.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population.
There were 29,714 households out of which 21.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.1% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.4% were
non-families. 40.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or
older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.89.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.8% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 36.1% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from
45 to 64, and 13.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $35,650, and the median income for a family was $48,763. Males had a median
income of $31,828 versus $27,173 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$12,698. About 21.7% of families and 34.1% of the population were below the poverty
line, including 40.0% of those under age 18 and 21.9% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
Due to being Maine's largest city, its proximity to Boston and having the state's largest port, Portland has become Maine's
economic capital. The local economy has shifted over the years from relying primarily on fishing, manufacturing and agriculture towards a much more service-based economy. Most
national financial services organizations with significant operations in the state
have their Maine base here, such as Bank of America, Key
Bank, Fidelity Investments, Anthem Blue Cross
& Blue Shield, and Aetna. Several notable companies headquartered or partially
headquartered here include: Unum, TD Banknorth, Maine Bank & Trust, ImmuCell Corp, and Pioneer Telephone. Several other notable companies that have an impact on the Greater Portland economy
are located in the suburbs of South Portland, Westbrook and Scarborough.
Portland has a low unemployment level when compared to national averages and the state average. Portland and surrounding
communities also have higher median incomes than most other Maine communities.
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2005 Annual Table
Report, the Port of Portland ranked as:
- The largest foreign inbound tonnage transit port in the United States;
- the largest tonnage port in New England;
- The 25th largest port in the United States; and
- The largest oil port on the US East Coast.
The Portland Pipeline, a crude oil pipeline that stretches from Portland to Montreal, was a major contributing factor in these rankings.
Notable buildings
The spire of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception has
been a notable feature of the Portland skyline since its completion in 1854. In 1859, Ammi B. Young designed the Marine Hospital, the first of three local
works by Supervising Architects of the U.S. Treasury Department.
Although the city lost to redevelopment the 1868 Greek
Revival Portland Post Office by Isaiah Rogers, it retains the equally monumental
1873 Italianate Portland Custom House by
Alfred B. Mullett. Another significant structure is at 477 Congress Street, a 14-story
commercial building completed in 1924, and known to locals as the Time & Temperature Building
due to a large electronic sign on the top of the building that has flashed that data for decades.
A more recent building of note is Franklin Towers, a 17-story residential tower completed in 1969 and regarded as Portland's (as well as Maine's) tallest building. This building
is next to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the Portland SkiLine. During the building boom of the 1980s, several new buildings rose on the peninsula, including the 1983 Charles
Shipman Payson Building by Henry R. Cobb of I.M. Pei at the Portland Museum of Art, and the
Back Bay Tower, a 15-story residential building completed in 1990.[4]
Education
See also
Colleges and universities
High schools
Culture
Sites of interest
Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad c. 2004
Wadsworth-Longfellow House c. 1910
Downtown Arts District, centered around Congress Street, is home to the
Portland Museum of Art, Portland Stage
Company, Maine College of Art, Children's Museum of Maine, SPACE Gallery, Merrill Auditorium, and Portland Symphony Orchestra, as well as
many smaller art galleries and studios.
Baxter Boulevard around Back Cove, Deering Oaks
Park, the Eastern Promenade, Lincoln Park, Riverton Park and the Western Promenade are all historical parks within the
city. Other parks and natural spaces include Payson Park, Post Office Park, Baxter Woods, Evergreen Cemetery and the Fore River
Sanctuary. The non-profit organization Portland Trails also maintains an expansive network of walking and hiking trails throughout
the city and neighboring communities.
Other sites of interest include:
Media
Portland is home to a concentration of broadcast and publishing companies, advertising agencies, web designers and commercial
photography studios.
The city is served by a daily newspaper, the The Portland Press Herald,
every day except for Sunday when the Maine Sunday Telegram is printed. The Maine Sunday Telegram is published by
Blethen Maine Newspapers, which publishes the Portland Press Herald and the free weekly lifestyle magazine The Maine SWITCH.
Portland is also home to The Portland
Phoenix, a weekly alternative newspaper, published by the Phoenix Media/Communications Group which is distributed free
every Wednesday throughout greater Portland. The Phoenix also publishes the quarterly lifestyle magazine, Portland
{STYLE}.
Other publications include The Portland
Forecaster, a community newspaper published by the Sun Journal, The Bollard , The West End News, Portland {STYLE} The Blue Room, The Munjoy Hill Observer, The
Baysider, The Waterfront and The Companion, a GLBT publication.
The Portland broadcast media market is the largest one in Maine in both radio and
television. A whole host of radio options are available in Portland, including WFNK (Classic Hits), WJAB (Sports), WTHT
(Country), WBQW (Classical), WHXR (Rock), WHOM (Adult Contemporary), WJBQ
(Top 40), 98.9 WCLZ
(Adult Album Alternative), WBLM (Classic Rock), and WCYY
(Modern Rock). WMPG is a local non-commercial radio station,
run by community members and the University of Southern Maine.
The area is served by local television stations representing most of the television networks. These stations include
WCSH 6 (NBC), WMTW 8 (ABC), WGME 13 (CBS),
WPFO 23 (FOX), WPME
35 (MyNetworkTV), and WPXT 51 (The CW). There is no PBS affiliate
licensed to the city of Portland but the market is served by WCBB Channel 10 in Augusta and
WMEA Channel 26 Biddeford.
Portland and its suburbs are the subjects of two monthly lifestyle magazines Portland and Port City Life.
Sports and recreation
Portland Sea Dogs, in May 2007, with the Portland Exposition Building in the background
The city is home to two minor league teams. The AA Portland Sea Dogs, a farm team of the Boston Red Sox, play at Hadlock Field. Additionally, there are the
American Hockey League Portland
Pirates. Skating at the Cumberland County Civic Center, they are
an affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks.
The Portland Sports Complex, located off of Park Ave. and Brighton Ave. near I-295 and Deering Oaks park, houses several of the city's
stadiums and arenas, including:
- Hadlock Field - baseball (Capacity 7,368)
- Fitzpatrick Stadium - football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and outdoor
track (Capacity 6,000+ seated)
- Portland Exposition Building - basketball, indoor track, concerts and
trade shows (Capacity 2,000)
- Portland Ice Arena - hockey and figure skating (Capacity 400)
The Portland area has eleven professional golf courses, 124 tennis courts, and 95 playgrounds. There are also over 100
miles (160 km) of nature trails.
Food and beverage
Boiled Maine lobster dish served in Portland
The downtown and Old Port districts have a high concentration of eating and drinking
establishments, with many more to be found throughout the rest of the peninsula, outlying neighborhoods, and neighboring
communities. Local lore holds that Portland ranks among the top U.S. cities in restaurants and bars per capita. According to the
Maine Restaurant Association, Portland is currently home to about 230 restaurants.[5]
Portland has also developed a national reputation for the quality of its restaurants and eateries. In the spring of 2007,
Portland was nominated as one of three finalists for "Delicious Destination of the Year" at the 2007 Food Network Awards.[6] Many local chefs have also gained national notoriety over the
past few years.[7][8]
The city and outlying region played host to Rachael Ray in an episode of her
Food Network Series $40 A Day.
Portland is home to a number of microbreweries and brewpubs, including the D. L. Geary Brewing Company,
Gritty McDuff's Brewing Company, Shipyard Brewing Company, Casco Bay Brewing Co.
and Allagash Brewing Company.
Portland is the birthplace of the "Italian sandwich." Southern Maine’s signature
sandwich, it is called simply "an Italian" by locals. Italian sandwiches are available at many stores, but most famously at
Amato's delicatessens, which claims to have originated the sandwich (hence the name).[1]
Infrastructure
Hospitals
Maine Medical Center is the largest hospital
in Maine and is continuing to expand its campus and services. Mercy Hospital, a
faith-based hospital, is the fourth-largest hospital in the state and began construction on its new campus along the
Fore River in late 2006. The project is expected to be
constructed in several phases, with completion of the first phase scheduled for 2008.[2]
Two formerly independent hospitals within the city are now being utilized in a different manner. The former Brighton Medical
Center is now owned by Maine Medical Center, housing a minor emergency room and
care center under the name Brighton First Care. The former Portland General Hospital is now home to the Barron Center nursing
facility.
Transportation
- See also: Portland, Maine (Amtrak
station)
Portland is accessible from I-95 (the Maine
Turnpike), I-295, and U.S. Route 1.
U.S. Route 302, a major travel route and scenic highway between Maine and
Vermont, has its eastern terminus in Portland.
Concord Trailways bus service connects Portland to 14 other communtities in Maine as well as Boston's South Station and
Logan Airport. Amtrak's Downeaster train service connects the city with Boston via
coastal New Hampshire. Both bus and train can be found at the Portland Transportation
Center on Thompson Point Road.
Commercial air service is provided by Portland International Jetport,
which is located west of the city's downtown district.
Ferry service is available year-round to many destinations in Casco Bay. Since
May 22, 2006, The Cat
high speed ferry has offered car ferry service to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, making
the trip in five hours. Until 2005, Scotia Prince Cruises had offered service that
took eleven hours.
The Portland Explorer is a service that connects various transportation centers within the city. METRO provides public bus
transit throughout Portland and the surrounding area.
Notable residents
Birthplace of Thomas B. Reed c.
1915
- Edville Gerhardt Abbott (1871-1938), surgeon
- James Alden, Jr., former Rear Admiral in the
United States Navy[9]
- Bebe Buell, model, actress, musician, & mother of Liv
Tyler
- Cyrus Curtis, publisher & philanthropist
- Nik Caner-Medley, basketball player
- Howie Carr, radio personality (born at Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary)
- Joshua Chamberlain, civil war hero, governor, served later in life as Surveyor of
the Port, Portland. Maintained a house on Back Bay
- Charles Codman, early American painter
- Ian Crocker, Olympic swimmer
- Patrick Dempsey, actor
- Neal S. Dow, Mayor of Portland, Union Army general,
Temperance Movement leader
- Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
- John Eder, Politician and Green Party
organizer
- William Pitt Fessenden, senator
- Frank Fixaris, sportscaster
- John Ford, director
- Jeremiah Hacker, journalist & reformer
- Fletcher Hale, United States
Representative from New Hampshire.
- B.E. Hart, comic artist & painter
- Daniel Lee James, extreme travel writer
- Stephen King, writer (born here, now lives in Bangor,
Maine)
- Linda Lavin, actress
- Steve Letarte, NASCAR crew chief
- Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., architect
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
- Bob Ludwig, Grammy Award winning audio mastering engineer
- John Lynch, U.S.
Representative
- John MacVane, news correspondent
- Bob Marley, comedian
- Andrea Martin, actress
- Holman S. Melcher, mayor, Civil War hero
- George Mitchell, US Senate Majority Leader, ex-chairman of Walt Disney. Practiced
law in Portland 1965–1977, Assistant County Attorney; Cumberland County 1971
- Doug Morton, musician/producer
- John Neal, author & critic
- Judd Nelson, actor
