The Forder House at 1235 Westbrook Street is one of the oldest houses in Portland. Estimates place its construction in the 1730s. It lies in the historic district of Stroudwater Village. Stroudwater Village is gorgeous, situated right near the Stroudwater and Fore Rivers. The Stroudwater Burial Grounds is the resting place of some of the most important faces in Portland’s development. Forder House also shares this neighborhood with some of the most well-known historic houses in Portland, such as the Captain Jesse Partridge House (1346 Westbrook Street) and the Francis Waldo House (1365 Westbrook Street).
DYK? The Portland Bridget Project
March is Women’s History Month; the perfect time to talk about the Portland Bridget Project. The project was begun by Michelle Josephson and Hannah Field to research Irish women who came here to work as servants and how their lives, and their families’ lives evolved through the years. The mission is to discover, preserve and share their stories with people today
DYK? Equality Community Center
April is National Fair Housing Month and 2025 marks the 57th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act. Signed into law on April 11, 1968, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, it was designed to protect Americans from discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on color, race, national origin, and religion. The act was later extended to sex, disability, and family status.
In honor of this we’d like to spotlight a new housing project, Equality Commons, that is under construction at 25 Casco Street. It’s right next to the Equality Community Center (ECC) a collaborative workplace which opened in 2022 at 15 Casco Street as a space for LGBTQ+ and social justice-seeking nonprofit organizations.
DYK? 28A Street and Black History in Portland
A site in Portland was included in The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a well-known guidebook for African Americans travelling in the mid-twentieth century.
enjamin Thomas worked as a Red Cap at Union Station while his wife Edie and other family members operated the Thomas House Tourist Home, a 16-room rooming house nearby at 28 A Street. Owing to the green lantern, lit rain or shine, underneath the front bay window the business was more commonly known by its nickname “The Green Lantern”. This site was featured in a great Boston Globe piece,"When travel was treacherous for Black people: The Green Book’s legacy in New England,“ last weekend, for which Greater Portland Landmarks provided research and an interview.
Advocacy Alert: Support Expanding the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit
Join Us in Supporting LD1810 to Expand
Maine's Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit
On Tuesday, May 9 at 1pm, the Taxation Committee of the Maine State Legislature will hold a hearing on LD 1810, An Act to Expand the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit. This bill will create a new program to ensure historic homeowners benefit from these transformational tax credits. Additionally, LD 1810, sponsored by House Majority Leader Maureen Terry on behalf of Greater Portland Landmarks and Maine Preservation, will improve the small credit to make it more user-friendly and accessible for income-producing property owners.
How Can You Help?
Submit a letter of support. Urge the Committee to adopt LD 1810. You can reference details of the program and persuasive research offered here, such as the incredible economic benefits that result from rehabilitation projects and the pointed recommendations of the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability.
Speak at the public hearing via Zoom. Individuals are allotted three minutes each, so consider in advance what you might like to say. Start off with a clear statement of support for LD 1810, such as "I support LD 1810 and the expansion of Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits to safeguard and financially incentivize the responsible stewardship of Maine's historic resources by homeowners."
Attend the public hearing in-person. Stand with Maine Preservation, Greater Portland Landmarks, and other allied organizations at the State House as the Taxation Committee discusses this bill. Even if you choose not to testify (please submit a letter in writing in advance!), your presence can speak volumes and shows bill sponsors that their constituents support this groundbreaking initiative!
The hearing will take place at the State House, Room 127, in Augusta.
Learn More about Testifying at the Legislature
LD 1810 is part of Policy Action 2023, an initiative of Build Maine and GrowSmart Maine.
Our View: PMA Campus Expansion & Unification
Aerial view of the Portland Museum of Art’s campus with the Payson Building at center-right and, to its left, the former Children’s Museum where the expansion plan is focused. Photo appeared in the Portland Press Herald, June 1, 2022, courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art.
On Sunday, March 19, 2023, we offered our thoughts on the Portland Museum of Art's campus expansion and unification plan in a Portland Press Herald Maine Voices column (full text below). We offer these comments in a constructive and collegial manner and look forward to being actively involved in community discussions about the future of this historic and contemporary campus.
Sarah Hansen
Executive Director
As the area’s nonprofit organization devoted to historic preservation, Greater Portland Landmarks’ mission is to ensure that Greater Portland preserves its sense of place for all and builds vibrant, sustainable neighborhoods and communities for the future. We seek to build awareness and encourage public participation in the discourse and decisions that are shaping our region. It is with this mission in mind that we offer considerations on the Portland Museum of Art’s proposal to expand and unite its campus, with special concern for its implications to the PMA’s architectural legacy.
The PMA recently announced the selection of LEVER Architecture to design a major new building and master plan to unite the museum’s campus. LEVER’s initial proposal has many worthy distinctions, including its scale, choice of sustainable materials, homage to Maine’s Wabanaki heritage, and ability to welcome the public into the museum. It does not appear that the program gave significant weight to preservation considerations, including how the design should interface with existing buildings and the surrounding community.
The historic buildings of the campus are a part of the PMA’s admirable “Art for All” initiative by showcasing important pieces of Portland’s architectural history. All of the campus’ buildings—including the Payson building (1983)—are contributing structures both to Portland’s local Congress Street Historic District and the Spring Street National Register District. The proposed design implicitly assumes complete demolition of one of these buildings—142 Free Street, the former Children’s Museum—without any specified justifications. Yet, the PMA will have to seek multiple City approvals to do so as 142 Free Street enjoys preservation protections against demolition or reduction to a facade based on its significance as a structure of nearly 200 years and association with notable architects, including John Calvin Stevens, a founding member of what is now the PMA.
Outside of the preservation protections for 142 Free Street (and the other buildings of the campus), the signature Payson building was designed to be in conversation with the façade of 142 Free Street, and its rhythm and scale were influenced by the earlier building. Removing that context thus diminishes the Payson building, which is also proposed to be significantly modified with the introduction of an archway leading to a High Street courtyard. This design effectively re-orients the museum away from Congress Square. These changes would dramatically affect the museum’s interactions with a major intersection undergoing significant publicly funded upgrades, including the Congress Square Park redesign. The redesigned courtyard itself has the potential to eliminate the beloved, heritage Copper Beech tree that presently graces that space.
As a major cultural institution for the city and heart of the Arts District, it is entirely appropriate for the PMA to make a bold architectural statement fitting of the twenty-first century to augment its historic campus and provide spaces for new forms of programming and exhibitions. But the PMA is also integrally stitched into the fabric of the existing city and Portland’s sense of place. As the museum looks to enhance its actions on accessibility and equity, we hope that it will also prioritize the stories that these spaces and historic structures on its campus represent—that it will use its architecture to teach us about the history and cultural heritage of the city. This is an extraordinary opportunity for the PMA to fully incorporate its architectural legacy and our shared built environment into its plans for the future.
Did You Know? Part 6: Uncovering History
December 21, 2022
Before and after photos of 190-192 Oxford Street, former home of an Armenian grocery store
1933 view of Congress Square, with Empire Chop Suey Chinese restaurant at center, courtesy Maine Memory Net
As an organization that’s been around for nearly 60 years, we are involved in a lot of different things, and we want to make sure you know the full scope of what we do.
The work of historic preservation was, for so long, the work of saving big, fancy, "important" buildings that were lived or worked in by "important" men. That mentality is changing, however, and the work we are doing at Greater Portland Landmarks reflects our focus on telling the whole story of a place and all the people who have lived, worked, played, and worshipped there throughout history.
What does this mean for our work?
This past spring, we received a Telling the Full History grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to identify the historic resources of underrepresented communities in Portland, focusing on Armenian American, Chinese American and African American populations. Working with graduate students and partners we are locating important sites and neighborhoods and developing context statements to share the missing stories of significance that have shaped Portland’s history, landscapes and architecture, allowing us to strengthen partnerships with our diverse neighbors, and use the information gathered to help share these stories through many platforms. Already, thanks to this past summer's interns, we have made considerable progress in documenting remaining resources, relating to the Armenian- and Chinese-American populations of Portland, particularly in the Bayside neighborhood, where so much was lost to urban renewal. This winter we have another intern beginning the work on the African American component of the project.
The Maine Historic Preservation Commission awarded Greater Portland Landmarks a New Century Community Fund Grant to fund research at the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine at the University of Southern Maine to identify historic properties associated with diverse Mainers. The research aims to identify buildings, sites, structures, districts or objects owned, occupied, or built by LGBTQ+, Jewish, and African American Mainers or associated with events or a pattern of events having significance in their culture or history. This project was also begun by an intern over the summer, and is currently being continued by two USM students.
When these projects are completed, we will have, in addition to a wealth of documentation, the ability to share these stories that have for too long been left in the dark. We will make this information accessible through a variety of platforms, including in-person events, online resources, and even walking tours.
Moving forward we will keep doing work like this, shining light onto aspects of history that haven't been highlighted yet, and helping to share all of Greater Portland's stories.
Blackstones, Portland's oldest (and last) gay bar
28 A Street, formerly the Green Lantern boarding house operated by Benjamin & Edie Thomas, catering to African American visitors, courtesy Maine Memory Net
Did You Know? Part 5: Preservation & Sustainability
December 14, 2022
Historic barn in Gorham, now boasting solar panels
High tide flooding on Commercial Street, photo by Corey Templeton
As an organization that’s been around for nearly 60 years, we are involved in a lot of different things, and we want to make sure you know the full scope of what we do.
The most eco-friendly building is the one already built. New construction takes an immense environmental toll, from demolition and landfill of existing buildings to the short lifespan of new materials and the energy that goes into their manufacture. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has put together this great page of facts about the environmental impact of new construction vs. preservation.
What does this mean for our work?
New buildings generate emissions during the construction process. Even the most energy efficient new structures can take as much as 80 years to offset those initial emissions. We encourage adaptive use of structures and ongoing maintenance of existing spaces. Our work to expand historic tax credit programs means that the financial burden is eased for property owners undertaking preservation projects. When a building can't be saved, and we recognize that they can't all last forever, we advocate for its careful deconstruction so that its materials may be repurposed into new construction or to add period-appropriate elements and materials to rehabilitation projects.
Older properties are often described as inefficient, but they don't need to be! There are so many ways to wake an old home energy efficient through weatherization, much of which can be done simply and affordably as DIY projects. When the need is greater, we are happy to point you in the right direction to trades people and providers who can help with anything from insulation and custom storm windows to the installation of solar panels. We have a whole page of resources on our website and are always happy to answer questions you may have.
Staying Above Water, a Property Owner's Guide, free, downloadable reference
Sea Level Rise scenarios by P. A. Slovinsky, S, Rickerich, and C. H. Halsted of the Maine Geological Survey, as appears in Staying Above Water
Did You Know? Part 4: Providing Support for the Trades
December 7, 2022
Bagala Window Works display at 2019 Old House Trade Show
Plaster Magic display at 2019 Old House Trade Show
As an organization that’s been around for nearly 60 years, we are involved in a lot of different things, and we want to make sure you know the full scope of what we do.
Without skilled tradespeople to actually carry out the work of preservation, all of our advocacy efforts would be for nothing.
What does this mean for our work?
In November, the Campaign for Historic Trades released a report on the status of historic trades in America. This document lays out the economic impact of historic preservation on the national economy and stresses the importance of providing support for these fields. It is a resource that is expertly researched and produced and will be an invaluable reference for us moving forward.
This winter, we’ll be hosting ongoing discussions with the area’s best tradespeople. These conversations bring forward ideas and action to share their passion with a new generation of workers to learn age old skills along with new techniques that make the preservation of old buildings not only possible but safe and sustainable for the future.
Our Preservation Directory is a wonderful resource for tradespeople to promote their businesses to our constituents who are looking not just for any old contractor, but for those who share their preservation goals. This one-stop-shop for people seeking projects takes some of the guesswork out of renovations, repairs, and even the buying and selling of properties.
The revival of our trade show, newly christened the Old House Emporium, is the opportunity to bring tradespeople into the same room as homeowners, renters, potential employees, and anyone else who just has an interest in preservation an all that it entails. This biennial event is more than just a home show, but one with a specific focus on keeping buildings' character while making them work for a modern lifestyle. We're still working out all the details, but we have some very exciting things in store for you, so stay tuned!
Participants in the Glaze-a-palooza at the 2022 Window Preservation Alliance conference
Reinstallation of the restored Hay & Peabody clock, October 2020, photo by Derek Davis via Portland Press Herald
Did You Know? Part 3: Investigating Home Histories
November 30, 2022
Marker program plaques
Original wallpaper in a marker home ca. 1890
As an organization that’s been around for nearly 60 years, we are involved in a lot of different things, and we want to make sure you know the full scope of what we do.
With expansive physical files, a knowledgeable staff, and volunteers with research expertise, we can uncover any building's past. More than 220 homeowners have done this work with us and now celebrate their home with a marker.
What does this mean for our work?
Many people are fascinated to know the history of their homes and those in their neighborhoods. We are happy to help you uncover your home’s story! At Greater Portland Landmarks, we are proud to offer expert support as you begin your research. Questions we can help to answer include: Who built the home? Who has lived in the home? What former purposes did the home have?
The story of a home doesn’t stop in the past. You are an exciting chapter in your home’s book, and we include your story in your home’s file for the next generation to discover. The research process culminates with the creation of a plaque to display on the building. Participation in the program doesn't come with any restrictions on renovations, improvements, or modifications, it's purely a way to show pride in a home and its contributions to Greater Portland’s history.
Basement stair detail in marker home ca. 1870
Marker home, the William H. McDuffie House, 1880
Wooden peg construction detail in a barn of a marker home, ca. 1815
Plaque in the wild on the George W. Curtis House, c. 1894