Maine Memory Network

Plan of rivers of Saco and Kennebunk, 1731

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1731 Media: Ink on paper

Stairwell, Oaklands, Gardiner, 1962

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1962 Location: Gardiner Media: Photographic print

Ray property, Natick Street, Peaks Island, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Clyde Ray Use: Summer Dwelling

77 Newbury Street, Portland, 1924

Owner in 1924: Raffaele Frascone Use: Dwelling - Single family

Mount Pleasant House, NH, 1894

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1894 Location: Carroll Client: unknown Architect: John Calvin Stevens

The Checkley House, Scarborough, 1895

Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1895 Location: Scarborough Client: unknown Architect: John Calvin Stevens

Student Exhibit: Historic Buildings on Madison Ave in Skowhegan

Take a tour and see some of the beautiful old buildings that used to be on Madison Avenue, Skowhegan? A few still remain, but most have been torn down.

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.

Guilford, Maine - BUILDINGS - Page 4 of 5

The building was built with bricks and had a slate roof. Slate was used a lot because of the slate quarry in Monson.

Guilford, Maine - BUILDINGS - Page 3 of 5

The Braeburn building finally burned down in early March of 2003. It was thought to be started by an electrical problem.

Monument Square 1967
by C. Michael Lewis

The background story and research behind a commissioned painting of Monument Square.

History of Forest Gardens
by Gary Libby

This is a history of one of Portland's oldest local bars

Longfellow Studies: The Elms - Stephen Longfellow's Gorham Farm

Grade Level: 6-8, 9-12 Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
On April 3, 1761 Stephen Longfellow II signed the deed for the first 100 acre purchase of land that he would own in Gorham, Maine. His son Stephen III (Judge Longfellow) would build a home on that property which still stands to this day. Judge Longfellow would become one of the most prominent citizens in Gorham’s history and one of the earliest influences on his grandson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's work as a poet. This exhibit examines why the Longfellows arrived in Gorham, Judge Longfellow's role in the history of the town, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's vacations in the country which may have influenced his greatest work, and the remains of the Longfellow estate still standing in Gorham today.

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.