Maine Memory Network

Home: The Longfellow House & the Emergence of Portland

The Wadsworth-Longfellow house is the oldest building on the Portland peninsula, the first historic site in Maine, a National Historic Landmark, home to three generations of Wadsworth and Longfellow family members -- including the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The history of the house and its inhabitants provide a unique view of the growth and changes of Portland -- as well as of the immediate surroundings of the home.

Portland Hotels

Since the establishment of the area's first licensed hotel in 1681, Portland has had a dramatic, grand and boisterous hotel tradition. The Portland hotel industry has in many ways reflected the growth and development of the city itself. As Portland grew with greater numbers of people moving through the city or calling it home, the hotel business expanded to fit the increasing demand.

South Portland's Wartime Shipbuilding

Two shipyards in South Portland, built quickly in 1941 to construct cargo ships for the British and Americans, produced nearly 270 ships in two and a half years. Many of those vessels bore the names of notable Mainers.

Hermann Kotzschmar: Portland's Musical Genius

During the second half of the 19th century, "Hermann Kotzschmar" was a familiar household name in Portland. He spent 59 years in his adopted city as a teacher, choral conductor, concert artist, and church organist.

Anshe Sfard, Portland's Early Chassidic Congregation

Chassidic Jews who came to Portland from Eastern Europe formed a congregation in the late 19th century and, in 1917, built a synagogue -- Anshe Sfard -- on Cumberland Avenue in Portland. By the early 1960s, the congregation was largely gone. The building was demolished in 1983.

WWI Memorial Trees along Portland's Baxter Boulevard

On Memorial Day of 1920, the City of Portland planted 100 Linden trees on Forest Avenue, each dedicated to the memory of one military service member who had died in World War I, or who had served honorably.

Horace W. Shaylor: Portland Penman

Horace W. Shaylor, a native of Ohio, settled in Portland and turned his focus to handwriting, developing several unique books of handwriting instruction. He also was a talented artist.

J.A. Poor and the Portland-Montreal Connection

John A. Poor's determination in 1845 to bring rail service to Maine and to make Portland the winter port for Montreal, along with the steel foundry he started to build locomotives and many other products, helped boost the economy of Portland the state.

Hiking, Art and Science: Portland's White Mountain Club

In 1873, a group of men, mostly from Portland, formed the second known hiking club in the U.S., the White Mountain Club of Portland, to carry out their scientific interests, their love of hiking and camaraderie, and their artistic interests in painting and drawing the features of several of the White Mountains.

Port of Portland's Custom House and Collectors of Customs

The collector of Portland was the key to federal patronage in Maine, though other ports and towns had collectors. Through the 19th century, the revenue was the major source of Federal Government income. As in Colonial times, the person appointed to head the custom House in Casco Bay was almost always a leading community figure, or a well-connected political personage.

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Society Copes

"Oh, tell me when you comin back again?" X Buy Your Grape Juice with a Signed Guarantee, 1932 Collections of Maine Historical Society Coll."

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Politics and Enforcement

"1900 Courtesy of the Charles E. Burden Collection The Rev. Samuel Freeman Pearson (1841-1901) was a Portland Fundamentalist preacher, leader of the…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - A Call to Temperance

"X Portland Riot Broadsides, Portland, 1849 Courtesy of a Private Collection These broadsides commemorate the famous bawdyhouse gunfights in…"

Westbrook Seminary: Educating Women

Westbrook Seminary, built on Stevens Plain in 1831, was founded to educate young men and young women. Seminaries traditionally were a form of advanced secondary education. Westbrook Seminary served an important function in admitting women students, for whom education was less available in the early and mid nineteenth century.

Rum, Riot, and Reform - Drinking: Elegance and Debauchery

"… in a respectable house was not the business for me to start as a young man desiring the best wishes of the best people." - John Martin X…"

Music in Maine - Drum, Portland, ca. 1854

"Drum, Portland, ca. 1854 Contributed by Maine Historical Society Description Noble and Cooley of East Granville, Massachusetts started…"

Rum, Riot, and Reform - 1620 to 1820: New England's Great Secret

"… of Captain Thomas Wannerton, "who drank to me a pint of kill-devil Rhum at a draught." Aside from that historic toast, Josselyn recorded some of…"

Music in Maine - Country Music

"What really captivated me were the stories told (some true, some as if they were true), the way they rhymed, and the way the music—often…"

Music in Maine - Rock and Roll, Punk, and Elvis

"Mainers attending my shows often tell me their stories about how they had tickets to see Elvis for his concert in Portland in 1977."

Music in Maine - Music stores

"… Wilco, Barenaked Ladies, Limp Bizkit, Against Me!, Imagine Dragons, Soweto Gospel Choir, Disturbed, Smashing Pumpkins, Chvrches, Tim Sample, and…"

Shaarey Tphiloh, Portland's Orthodox Synagogue

Shaarey Tphiloh was founded in 1904 by immigrants from Eastern Europe. While accommodating to American society, the Orthodox synagogue also has retained many of its traditions.

Music in Maine - Music Makers

"… diary, "Oh! My records! These new recordings make me happy. Schirmer’s machine is a joy, such tone-quality and such clarity!" Elise Fellows…"

Home: The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Portland - The Longfellow Era: 1807-1901

""An affectionate presence seems to enfold me here…A benediction will ever rest on us children under the old roof tree…so long as memory of our dear…"

Memorializing Civil War Veterans: Portland & Westbrook

Three cemeteries -- all of which were in Westbrook during the Civil War -- contain headstones of Civil War soldiers. The inscriptions and embellishments on the stones offer insight into sentiments of the eras when the soldiers died.