A Stroll Through Portland, Eastern Promenade and Old Port
Portland is a beautiful small city, where the old meets the new, and classic meets modern, with the roots of the city going well beyond recorded history, where multiple native tribes have called the peninsula home, though the first European
to settle the peninsula was Christopher Levitt from England in 1623, he called the settlement York. However he failed to garner interest in the settlement upon return to England, and abandoned the settlement. There is a fort in the bay that is visible in a few of these photos named after Levitt. Next in 1633 the first permanent European settlement was founded on the Island by George Cleeve and Richard Tucker as a fishing and trading village. They renamed the settlement Casco. However in 1658 the Massachusetts Colony took control of the settlement and again renamed it to Falmouth. However in 1676 the settlement was completely destroyed by the Abenaki people during King Phillip's War. The village was again destroyed in 1690 during King William's War. The village would be abandoned for the next ten years.
The community would yet again be completely destroyed in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. When it was rebuilt, the center of the city was this time focused in the area now known as Old Port, which I will be walking you though. In 1786, the area of Falmouth known as the Neck, would develop and grow rapidly as a shipping center, and the citizens decided to break away to form their own city in Falmouth Neck called Portland, and that is the history of how Portland became "Portland".
Now, many of you might be more familiar with Portland Oregon, the interesting thing about Portland Oregon, is that it was named after Portland ME, from what I have heard the decision was made in a coin toss between naming it Boston or Portland, and Portland won out, and thus Portland Oregon was named after Portland Maine (though in my humble opinion, Portland ME is the better of the cities).
I did also want to mention, that though the city has been around since the 1600s it is rare to find any buildings predating July 4 of 1866, because that was the year of the great fire that wiped out most of the city. After the Great fire the city was rebuilt mostly in brick in the Victorian style, which you might see in some of these photos, but I didn't take many pictures of the beautiful Victorian houses, because I kind of thought that that deserves its own post.
So I began my walk at the Fort Allen Park, where I parked my car. I love this park, it overlooks the bay, and from which you can see as far out as the Portland Headlight, which is where the Casco bay opens to the open ocean, from this view you can also clearly see two smaller lighthouses, Bug Light and Spring Point Light, which help to guide ships into the harbor. The first
two photos are the view from the hill at Fort Allen Park. Next I continued down the Eastern Promenade Trail towards Fore Points Marina. The third photo is of the narrow gauge train that gives tours along the shore at the east end of the peninsula around the Eastern Promenade. I haven't ridden the train yet, but I would like to sometime in the future. There are also trolley bus tours of the city too, that I would like to check out sometime. The next picture is looking back towards the Fore Points Marina, in the summer it is common to see large yachts docked here. Also it is very common for cruise ships to be seen coming in to the harbor and docking near here.
As I continue my walk along the harbor I come to the transit center where the ferries take people to the islands, where people live, and also tourists explore. I still haven't been out to the islands yet, but it is something I would like to do in the future. While I was exploring the area I found this propeller from the Tug Boat Stamford. It was interesting to read the history of this propeller and the history of the ship itself, how it traveled around the world, being used for many different purposes throughout its history.
Maine is not just known for its shipping out of port cities like Portland, where products ranging from textiles made in the textile mills up river, to the foresting industry that is still a big part of the economy, but also agriculture being a major producer of potatoes and blueberries, and of course the fishing industry. Another industry that Maine is famous for though is its ship building, to this day Bath Iron Works in Bath Maine (The City Of Ships) is an important factor that builds ships for the United States Navy. So from huge multi mast ships that hauled goods and even fought in wars, to destroyer class war ships, down to the tug boat that this propeller once belonged to, Maine has a long history of ship building.
Also considering that this propeller from a tugboat measures in at about 9 feet, I could only imagine what the propellers on the big ships that I see coming into the harbor must look like.
In my adventures I found several interesting sculptures, some I took photos to share with you, others I didn't. The walk was beautiful, as was the day. I love that when I started my walk there was this beautiful mist over the ocean. One of my favourite things is walking through the streets of Portland when the mist is setting in heavy over the streets, coming down the streets like a ghost. This is such a beautiful small city with such an interesting history, from the old Port to the Maine Mall, there is an interesting history here. The city acts as a the main center of commerce for the state of Maine, with one of the most important harbors in New England, as well as being the home of the Portland Jetport, the largest international airport in the state of Maine, not to mention it also being a hub for rail traffic and trucking traffic.
Another interesting thing that I found on my walk was the Portland Freedom Trail monument. Believe it or not, but Portland was not only a key hub in New England for shipping and commerce, but it was also a key place in the freedom of ex-slaves in the United States. Maine was instrumental in helping freed slaves escape to safety, they would meet them at the docks where they would have been stowaways on ships, and helped them to find housing and work, and some they helped to continue their journey to freedom in Canada. Portland at one time on the wharfs and ships employed large numbers of black people, giving them well paying jobs. It is interesting learning this history of this beautiful city, looking at the states current demographics, and how white the state is, when it was once a state that was instrumental in helping to give ex-slave freedom and either a safe place to live and work, or safe passage to Canada. What really breaks my heart is when I drive through some areas of rural Maine and I see people with
Confederate Flags waving from their houses or big pick up trucks. Maine was part of the Union Army, and even our accent is called the Yankee accent, and it is such a slap in the face seeing ignorant white people waving the flag that their ancestors in this beautiful state fought so valiantly against.
Continuing my walk into Old Port, which was once the business center of Portland, we begin to see how modern buildings come together the brick Victorian architecture of the post Great Fire Portland. We also begin to see beautiful murals painted on the sides of buildings, around the Old Port, some commercial murals, and others done by commissioned artists to tell the stories of the community.
Here we see some of the working piers of the city. At one time there was a booming coal industry here and, and also with the wood and textile mills further up stream from the Casco Bay, with little to no environmental protections stopping the dumping of waste into the waterways, I read that at one time the bay smelled so bad that people were afraid to swim in it or to eat the fish that came out of it. The coal dust was so thick on these piers that they had to shovel the coal dust like snow several times a day. Humans used to treat these beautiful waterways like their dumping grounds. At one point in history many of the rivers in Maine were so toxic that they were nearly dead rivers. Thankfully in the 1970s the USA got more serious about environmental protections and the EPA helped to stop people and businesses from dumping into the waterways, and over the years things have turned around so much, that we have the beautiful waters that we do today, where there are healthy stocks of fish and seafood that is safe to eat right here in the harbor, and most of the rivers are now clean and fresh and full of fish again. Sadly however the next big challenge facing the people of Maine is climate change, another bi-product of our wasteful ways. The water temps in the Gulf of Maine have risen to the point that the native Maine
are no longer found here, and invasive species of more warm water crabs, like green crabs, are thriving and destroying our native crab's habitats, and that is why it is rare to find a fish market that still sells live local crabs, we are seeing first hand the devastating effects of climate change on our oceans right here in Maine.
This next photo is the Customs House, which is where at one time immigrants would come and apply for citizenship. This is such a beautiful old building, I love the architecture of it. There is so much beauty in these old historic buildings, and it is nice to see so many of them still used, though there is also so much new modern construction taking place in Portland too, changing much of the face of the community.
In the next phot we see another image of the working piers on the harbor, this would be the backside of Harbor Fish, you can see the stacks of lobster pots on the dock. Lobstermen contracted with Harbor Fish will bring their catches in here to be sold at the market to the public. The store that I work at Free
Range Fish and Lobster is located further up the waterfront near the Casco Bay Bridge, they have a much larger pier, where large fishing ships will bring in the daily catches and several Lobster boats will bring in their pots of lobsters multiple times a day. It is nice working on a working harbor, seeing the fishermen and lobstermen unloading their catches, and also seeing the container ships being loaded with cargo, and the large tanker ships coming and going. Portland is still an active fishing and shipping city.
One of the things that first attracted me to Portland, was the fact that in the Old Port there are still classic cobblestone streets that are still in use. Looking at this photo of one of the cobble stone streets, almost makes you feel like you are in a different time, like an older time and place. I love this look and you can almost feel the history beneath your feet. I can imagine people walking these streets, as big sailing ships would be docked in the harbor.
These next couple photos showcase more of the classic architecture and the beautiful cobblestone streets of the Old Port. It was beautiful walking through here on a warm autumn day.
Here we see more modern paved streets, but lined with classic post fire brick buildings, and the beautiful fall foliage. In the summer these streets would crowded day and night with vacationers from all over the world. It was beautiful today having these streets to myself to walk around and explore.
Here again we see the blending of modern architecture with the classic post great fire brick architecture, with the beautiful cobblestone boulevard. In the summer there would always be people crowding around this area, with musicians playing and people sitting on the grass and ledges. It is nice the cobblestones help to make people slow down and actually enjoy the city around them, because they are so rough to drive on. In this photo you can again see the Customs House, but from the inland side, rather than the side that we saw it from before.
Here we see in a dirty alley a beautifully pained mural depicting the Old Port of yesterday, remember the history of this great city.
Again here is the opposite side of the Customs House from the phot I posted earlier on in this. The building was designed so that both sides look the same, which I think is an interesting design. In the next photo further up the hill there is this very old historic school, and oddly right next to the school is a cemetery. Could you imagine sitting in class, looking out the window at a graveyard, that exists where there should be a playground or sports filed or something of that sort, but nope, not in the heart of Portland, we put a bloody cemetery butting right up against school. I would like to someday learn more about this oddity, for example which came first the school or the cemetery.
Above is a mural of people digging for clams. And the next three photos are overlooking the Eastern Promenade, and the Casco Bay. The final picture below is the end of my walk. My walk ends where it began in the beautiful Fort Allen Park overlooking the Portland Harbor and where the Casco Bay meets the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
I hope you enjoyed walking through the streets of Old Port and the Eastern Promenade with me. I will post more adventure from time to time, so please let me know if you enjoyed this, and me sharing some of the history of the areas with you as well.
Comments
Post a Comment