Keywords: Building restoration
Item 18380
Restoration of Sts. Peter and Paul, Lewiston, 2004
Contributed by: Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries Date: 2004 Location: Lewiston Media: Photographic print
Item 108636
High school building, Topsham, ca. 1910
Contributed by: Penobscot Marine Museum Date: circa 1910 Location: Topsham Media: Glass Plate Negative
Item 65229
73-75 Newbury Street, Portland, 1924
Owner in 1924: David Finkelman Use: Apartments
Exhibit
Like many cities in France, Lewiston and Auburn's skylines are dominated by a cathedral-like structure, St. Peter and Paul Church. Now designated a basilica by the Vatican, it stands as a symbol of French Catholic contributions to the State of Maine.
Exhibit
Washington County Through Eastern's Eye
Images taken by itinerant photographers for Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company, a real photo postcard company, provide a unique look at industry, commerce, recreation, tourism, and the communities of Washington County in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Site Page
Historic Hallowell - Important Buildings and Institutions
"… the vibrant business district and along the restored waterfront, provides clues to America's past, and to a world all but vanished."
Site Page
Mount Desert Island: Shaped by Nature - Postscript: More Moving Buildings
"Clover Cottage was laboriously and lovingly restored and improved in the first decade of the 21st century and remains one of the very attractive…"
Story
Biddeford City Hall: an in-depth tour of this iconic building
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center Voices of Biddeford project
Visual tour and unique insights of Biddeford’s historical landmark
Story
History of Forest Gardens
by Gary Libby
This is a history of one of Portland's oldest local bars
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport"
Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Longfellow's poem "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" opens up the issue of the earliest history of the Jews in America, and the significant roles they played as businessmen and later benefactors to the greater community. The history of the building itself is notable in terms of early American architecture, its having been designed, apparently gratis, by the most noted architect of the day. Furthermore, the poem traces the history of Newport as kind of a microcosm of New England commercial cities before the industrialization boom. For almost any age student the poem could be used to open up interest in local cemeteries, which are almost always a wealth of curiousities and history. Longfellow and his friends enjoyed exploring cemeteries, and today our little local cemeteries can be used to teach little local histories and parts of the big picture as well.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited the Jewish cemetery in Newport, RI on July 9, 1852. His popular poem about the site, published two years later, was certainly a sympathetic portrayal of the place and its people. In addition to Victorian romantic musings about the "Hebrews in their graves," Longfellow includes in this poem references to the historic persecution of the Jews, as well as very specific references to their religious practices.
Since the cemetery and the nearby synagogue were restored and protected with an infusion of funding just a couple years after Longfellow's visit, and later a congregation again assembled, his gloomy predictions about the place proved false (never mind the conclusion of the poem, "And the dead nations never rise again!"). Nevertheless, it is a fascinating poem, and an interesting window into the history of the nation's oldest extant synagogue.
