1. Baxter Library
619 Congress Street
Romanesque Revival, 1888
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The Baxter Building (former Portland Public Library)
was a gift to the City from philanthropist James Baxter. The fortune
amassed through his Portland Packing Company enabled Baxter to devote much
of his life to varied cultural interests and the betterment of Portland.
(Baxter served six terms as Mayor of Portland and was largely responsible
for the expansion of the city's park system.)
Francis H. Fassett designed
the library in the Romanesque revival style, much in the manner of Henry
Hobson Richardson, architect of Boston's Trinity Church. The massive
arches, roughly textured walls, and variety of masonry materials are all
features of this style, sometimes referred to as "Richardson Romanesque."
The facade and interior of Fassett's library clearly suggest the appearance and spatial arrangement of a Romanesque church. The former
library is now occupied by the Portland School of Art. |
2. Portland Museum of Art
The Charles Shipman Payson Wing
Post-Modern 1979-83
Henry N. Cobb of I.M. Pei, Architect
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Opened in 1983, the Payson Wing (named for prominent
benefactor Charles Shipman Payson) replaces the 1890's Y.M.C.A. or Libby
Building on the same site. The Payson Wing is a prominent example of the
contemporary Post-modern movement in architecture. Its exterior reflects
a traditional architectural vocabulary and makes reference to great
monuments of the past; the great bill-board-like front mounted on a ground
level loggia recalls the Doges Palace in Venice, while the use of arched
motifs echoes the work of the great English Architect, Sir John Sloane.
Inside, complex, sky-lit domes (another borrowing from Sloane) disperse
ample natural illumination. Through its use of granite string courses,
the new Museum Wing also reflects local 19th-century building practices. |
3. Charles Q. Clapp Block - Hay's Drug Store
Congress Street
Federal, 1826
Colonial Revival, 1922
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This is one of two "flatiron" buildings in Portland.
(The second one is on Middle Street south of Monument Square.) Both were
occupied by local drug firm of H. H. Hay and Sons. This building was
designed by Charles Q. Clapp, a prominent Portland real estate speculator
and self-taught architect. The arched second story windows, wood louvered
fans, and recessed panels separating them, are features of the Federal
style. The third story, designed by John Calvin Stevens, was added to the
building in 1922. The building was restored by Greater Portland Landmarks
in 1980. |
4. John Bundy Brown Memorial Block
529-543 Congress Street
Queen Anne, 1882-1883
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John Bundy Brown began his career in Portland as a
grocery clerk, earning $50 a year. Success in his grocery, sugar, real
estate, and banking ventures, however, eventually made him the city's
greatest capitalist. At the time of his death in 1881, his various
enterprises contributed one-thirtieth of Portland's total tax revenues.
John Calvin Stevens designed this block in Brown's memory, while working
with the Fassett firm. If one compares the building with the massive
construction of Mechanic's Hall (#6 on the tour), the delicate features of
the J. B. Brown Memorial Block are strikingly evident. The tall,
projecting chimneys give the building a vertical emphasis. The windows
are grouped asymetrically in bays. The rich surface texture to the
building is created through the use of freestone and terra cotta, as well
as brick. |
5. Porteous, Mitchell & Braun Block
522 Congress Street
Beaux-Arts Classicism, 1904
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Rich with sculptural detail, the Porteous, Mitchell &
Braun Block is a handsome commercial example of Beaux-Arts Classicism.
Cherub heads enliven the capitals of the main Composite order pilasters
and the shorter Ionic pilasters above the wide
rondels with crests and the garlands on the upper stories, and the leafy
brackets of the cornice. All are carved in limestone.
George Burnham
was the architect. |
6. Mechanic's Hall
519 Congress Street
Italianate, 1857-1858
Keystone
(Photo by Nicholas Dean)
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Thomas J. Sparrow, the city's first noteworthy native
architect, designed this building for the Maine Charitable Mechanics
Association, an organization devoted to "cultivating the mind, and
training up a race of mechanics of sound moral principle and intellectual
power..."
The original plan for the building primarily considered the Mechanic
Association's use, though it did provide for storefronts along the street.
The high arches on the front of the building dominate the monumental
facade. The wide overhanging cornice with brackets and the rusticated
granite blocks at the corners identify the building as Italianate.
Sparrow ornamented the keystones over the tall windows with carvings of
Archimedes, Vulcan, and the arm of labor. |
7. Maine Savings Bank
Maine Savings Plaza
Modern, 1974
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The plaza created by the set-back of the Maine Savings
Bank comes as a surprise on Congress Street -- a sudden void in the tight
line-up of the other buildings on the street. To a certain degree, the
low, flat wall maintains the street edge. the undulating arms of the
single story wings draw one gradually up and into the Bank. The
consistently dark, coppery-brown color of the various materials - brick,
tile, anodized aluminum, tinted glass - unifies the buildings and the
outdoor plaza. The complex was designed by Pietro Belluschi, Inc. and
Jung/Brannen Associates, Boston. |
8. Wadsworth-Longfellow House
487 Congress Street
Colonial, 1785-1786
Federal, 1815
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Much of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's early poetry was
written here in his family's home. General Peleg Wadsworth, Longfellow's
grandfather, began its construction in 1785, with bricks shipped from
Philadelphia. The initial supply of bricks was exhausted on the first
story, and completion of the second story was delayed until 1786 when a
second shipment arrived. A fire in 1814 destroyed the original gable
roof. The third story and Federal style hip roof were added the following
year. These later alterations are evident in the changing pattern of the
bricks. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in
1843, but he often returned to Portland. His family's home is the oldest
remaining residence on the Portland peninsula. |
9. Fidelity Trust Company Building
467 Congress Street
Beaux Arts, 1910
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Portland's first skyscaper, the Fidelity Trust Company
Building, was designed by G. Henri Desmond, a Boston architect. The
building features a steel frame, a structural form now so ommon that one
forgets its revolutionary effect on modern architecture. Prior to the use
of structural steel, the exterior walls of a building supported its
weight. The use of structural steel transferred the weight of a building
to the interior skeleton, making possible the development of the exterior
"curtain wall." The frame of the Fidelity Building is covered on two
sides by Indiana Bedford limestone. The sculptured roofline gives the
Fidelity a unique profile, almost Gothic in appearance.
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10. Lancaster Block
474 Congress Street
Queen Anne, 1881
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Curvilinear terra cotta panels and rondels, features
of the sculptural Queen Anne style, enliven the well-ordered facade of
this commercial building. The original four stories were designed by the
firm of Fassett and Stevens for J. B. Brown in 1881. Brown was born in
Lancaster, New Hampshire in 1805; hence the name of the building.
The upper two stories, distinguished by the slightly lighter colored brick and
the Colonial Revival detail, were added before 1924. Additional stories
are fairly common on Congress Street buildings, the two on the Lancaster
Block blend unusually well with the original structure. |
11. Soldiers & Sailors Monument
Monument Square
1891
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The Portland Soldiers and Sailors Monument Association
was formed in 1883 to raise funds to build a commemorative statue. The
bronze statue they commissioned was designed by local sculpture Franklin
Simmons. The pedestal was designed by Richard Hunt, a prominent New York
architect. With the installation of this monument as Portland's Civil
War Memorial, "Market Square" became "Monument Square."
Today, the
statue dominates a large triangular brick plaza which was enlarged and
improved through the Maine Way urban renewal program.
On the left side of
the pedestal is a bronze casting of soldiers in Civil War uniform. On the
right side of the pedestal is a bronze casting of sailors dressed in
uniforms of the Civil War era. |
12. Portland Public Library
455 Congress Street
Modern, 1979
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Architect - Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott
Incorporated, Boston; James R. Clapp, Jr. principal architect,
Associate
Architects - Schurman Associates, Portland; David Schurman, architect. |
13. Casco Bank Building
One Monument Square
Modern, 1970
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The triangular piers, unbroken from the ground to the
roof where they create a jagged silhouette, define the massive
aggressiveness of the Casco Bank Building. A muted horizontal rhythm is
created by the spandrew areas of the vertical window bands, painted black
to hide each floor level.
The building was designed by Walker O. Cain &
Associates, New York.
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14. First Parish Church
425 Congress Street
Colonial-Federal
1825-1826
(Photo by C. Richard Coburn)
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In 1740, Portland residents built a wooden meeting house
called "Old Jerusalem" on this site. The Constitution of the State of
Maine was drafted there in 1819. The structure stood until 1824 when the
parish decided to build a new church. At the time of its completion, the
First Parish Church was the first major granite structure east of
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was built with stone from Freeport, Maine.
Today it stands as Portland's oldest house of worship, John Mussey, a
parishioner, is credited with the design. The structure retains its
original appearance inside and out. The bannerette weathervane was
salvaged from the original church, "Old Jerusalem."
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15. Portland City Hall
389 Congress Street
Second Renaissance Revival, 1909-1912
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Carrere and Hastings of New York, one of the nation's
leading architectural firms at the turn of the century, designed
Portland's City Hall. Two previous buildings stood on this site. The
first fell victim to the great fire in 1866; the rebuilt hall burned in
1908. Carrere and Hastings are perhaps best known for their design of the
New York Public Library, but Carrere is said to have been especially
pleased with his design here. The elaborate structure is based loosely on
a French Renaissance Hotel de Ville. The building gracefully conceals its
actual size through its relation to the courtyard in front of the
entrance. The tower stands almost 200 feet high, and the building houses
a 3,000 seat auditorium. The granite for the building came from North
Jay, Maine. |
Window with Ionic pilaster
Doric Column |
16. Lincoln Park
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After the Great Fire of July 4, 1866 burned over this
area of Portland, Lincoln Park was laid out as a safety measure. The
stately Victorian mansions which first surrounded the park were gradually
replaced by the public buildings one sees today, set off dramatically by
the open space. A portion of the park was acquired for the widening of
Franklin Street into a major arterial. |
(© Greater Portland Landmarks)
17. Portland Observatory
138 Congress Street
1807
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In the distance to the east, at the top of Munjoy Hill,
stands the Portland Observatory, a prominent landmark visible from points
throughout the city. Captain Lemuel Moody organized the construction of
the signal tower in 1807. Ships in distress could be sighted from its
telescope. Color coded flags were flown from the tower to alert ship
owners that their vessels were entering the harbor.
While radio and radar
have replaced the maritime functions of the tower, it still offers a
panoramic view of Portland and Casco Bay. The tower stands 221 feet above
sea level. It is open to the public during the summer months.
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