Maine Memory Network

Bruns Apartments
33-35 Presumpscot Street

Danish-American Neils A.N. Bruns lofted this new two-family dwelling at 33-35 Presumpscot Street on Back Cove as a rental property.

The utilitarian building abutted Baxter Boulevard, which had been constructed from 1917-1921 as part of a visionary park system of beautification and sanitation begun by Mayor James Phinney Baxter.

Two railroad clerks rented the apartments in 1923. One was Arthur P. Kelsen. He and his wife, Ingeborge, both natives of Denmark, lived in the house until 1946.

Portland had a Danish population of 1,500 by 1907, including three ethnic churches and ten Danish societies.

Woolf Home Garage
29 Pine Street


The automobile garage at the home of Anna R. Woolf at 29 Pine Street is set back from the street in the courtyard of her home. The house, 29A Pine Street, was photographed separately. One of the assessor's crew is examining the garage.

This neighborhood off Longfellow Square had been spared the Great Fire of 1866 and was, by 1924, a mix of Yankees and newcomers.

Later in 1924, Angie O. and Hollie Burrill, a retail meat dealer from Canaan, moved into the home. Neighbors included Everett Cook, a real estate dealer, and his wife, Abbie, who ran a lodging house; William G. Terris, a freight train conductor; and Widgery Thomas, clerk in a prominent law firm.

Fidelity Trust Building
465-471 Congress Street

Completed in 1910, the Fidelity Trust Building was the tallest building in New England. Boston limited buildings to nine stories. Designed by Boston architect G. Henry Desmond, the 10-story Beaux Arts "skyscraper" seemed to set the tone for progress in 20th-century Portland.

Its neighbor across Preble Street, the Chapman Building, a 12-story office and store complex, was completed in 1924. The two were the city's only skyscrapers.

Chapman Building
473-477

Herbert W. Rhodes designed the classical revival Chapman Building, which was built on the site of the Preble House Hotel.

Verticality was seen as the emerging shape of the 20th-century city. For Portland, the 1929 stock market crash and Great Depression stopped the progress.

In 1962 the Chapman Bank – now known as the Time and Temperature Building – gained two more stories. It was not until the 1970s that more tall buildings were added to Portland's landscape.

Grand Trunk Railroad Station
84-184 Fore Street


Portland was still Canada's chief winter port for western grain when the Grand Trunk Railroad Station, designed by Spier & Rohr, opened on India Street in 1903. It replaced earlier stations.

Beginning in the 1870s, massive grain elevators like the one visible here behind the station, were built near the tracks. By the mid 1920s, the Canadian government began to ship grain to Halifax, Nova Scotia, bypassing Portland entirely by the 1930s.

Coal Diggers and Trestle
358 Boston and Maine Wharf


Coal Diggers and Trestle, seen here, were state of the art in 1924, replacing the little used grain elevators. Coal was first shipped to the port in a barrel in 1830, then began arrived by coastal barges, mostly from Virginia. Railroad tracks ran the length of the waterfront

In the days of coal pockets on Commercial Street, shopkeepers as far away as Fore and Exchange streets had to sweep their sidewalks daily to remove coal dust.

The grain elevators experienced a brief rebirth during World War II, but were torn down in the 1970s. The elegant station was demolished in 1966.

Casino
Fessenden Avenue, Little Diamond Island

John Calvin Stevens, Portland's leading architect and promoter of city manager government, designed the Casino on the wharf at Fessenden Avenue, Little Diamond Island in Portland’s Casco Bay.

Built in 1908, the shingle style-structure was part of a development envisioned by promoter George W. Brown.

The Casino was taken over by the successful Little Diamond Island Association in l912. The building is, for many visitors, the representation of "vacationland."

Pauline Johnson's Fish Shack
Fern Avenue, Long Island

"Shacks," barns, and sheds, regardless of their appearance, were taxed.

Pauline Johnson’s Fish Shack at Fern Avenue on Long Island is picturesque – framed by lobster traps and a dory.

In 1924 Fern Avenue is described as running from Beach Avenue easterly to Island Avenue on the west end. Mrs. Johnson lived at Harbor de Grace Street on the island.

In 1993 Long Island seceded from Portland.

Neal W. Allen House
19 Craigie Street

The Neal W. Allen Sr., House at what is now 186 Craigie Street in Deering was part of an exclusive enclave of structures designed by John Calvin Stevens early in the 20th century.

Neal Allen was married to the architect’s daughter Margaret Louise in 1909 and moved into their new Arts & Crafts Movement home that year. Stevens lived next door.

Allen became chairman of the City Council in 1924. The head of F.O. Bailey Co. auctioneers, Allen remaining an active force in the city until 1958.

The Portland Evening Express stated that Allen "engaged in many a hot controversy without ever being accused of pettiness or prejudice or losing the admiration of those who disagreed with him."

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Asylum
28-40 Mellen Street

This is the original tax record including a copy of the reverse showing the information collected about this property.

Listed on the 1924 Tax Role as “St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Asylum” this elegant structure was known as Holy Innocents Home.

Architect John Calvin Stevens designed it as a private home for the wealthy banker George S. Payson in 1898. The church bought it about 1919, signaling a social and demographic change in the peninsula’s West End.

Some feared the loss of well-kept homes would turn the neighborhood into a slum or less desirable area. Many well-to-do residents did move to more fashionable addresses.

Most of the Payson building’s history has been that of an institutional residence. It is currently home to Community Alcoholism Orientation House Inc.

Dunphy Apartment Complex
13-19 Vine Street

After the Great Fire of 1866, a warren of three-story tenements grew up on the peninsula. Immigrants occupied parts of Franklin, India, Vine, Deer, and Chatham streets.

Lewis G. Dunphy, a real-estate dealer, owned the apartment complex at 13-14 Vine Street. Rosie Shulman owned the India Street building that was home to members of the Paris, Mazziotti, Vacca, Johnson and MacAllister families.

Shulman Tenement
73-75 India Street

In 1922, the residents of this area were part of a perceived ethnic crisis that saw the first Americanization classes in Portland, and national immigration restrictions.

Though inhabited by many races and nationalities, this section of the city was generally called "Little Italy."

Vaughn A. West Farm
1056-1088 Washington Avenue

Vaughn A. West's farm on Washington Avenue is a good example of agricultural Portland, which had flourished since the colonial era.

Housing replaced most agriculture on the peninsula, but farms continued in Deering, annexed in 1899-1900, and on the Casco Bay islands.

As late as 1935, Portland boasted 82 farms and 2,522 acres of agricultural land, worth $592,308.

Gulf Gasoline Station
701 Forest Avenue

By the 1920s, gas stations and automobiles were quickly replacing livery stations and horses and streetcars on Portland streets.

Heating oil and other petroleum products, brought in by small barges, were beginning to replace coal.

Rosenberg's Pool Hall, Fish Market, Auto-Supply Shop
305-309 St. John Street

Benjamin Rosenberg's retail complex included an automobile supply store, further reflecting the changing city. Its pool hall and fish market probably catered mostly to residents of the working-class neighborhood, known as Libby Town.

Union Station and Thompsons Point Yards were nearby.

The Rosenbergs lived on Sherman Street, slightly closer to downtown.