Visit to Portland, Maine

City of Portland

A view of the East End district of Portland.

Outside view of Becky's Diner, a Portland institution. Good food too!

inside view of Becky's Diner.

On the left, (green roof) is part of the Maine State Pier complex, with one of the Commercial Street docks in front.

Essentially in its original state, The U.S. Custom House is a mixture of Renaissance Revival and Second Empire styles.

Built in 1807, the Portland Observatory is the only maritime signal tower left in the United States. It is 26 meters (86 feet) tall and sits 68 meters (222 feet) above sea level. It ceased operation in 1923, and is now open to the public for guided tours. Click the picture to see more information about the observatory.

One of the Whaling Wall murals by the artist Wyland (Robert Wyland). On the side of the Marine State Pier, this one is number WW 36 “Whales off the Coast of Maine”. It is 1,000 feet long and was dedicated on June 7th, 1993. Click on the picture for more information about Wyland's whale murals.

The Victoria Mansion, or Morse-Libby Mansion, was completed in 1860 for Ruggles Sylvester Morse in the Italianate style. It is remarkably complete, with more than 90% of the original contents, and is very little altered from the original Henry Austin design. Austin also designed many buildings at Yale, but the Victoria Mansion is generally regarded as his masterpiece.

It was advanced for its time with a form of warm air central heating as well as hot and cold running water supplied from a cistern fed with rain water from the gutters. At the same time, for us, the house felt too much like a museum rather than a home even with all the originality. The interiors were the first commission for Gustave Herter, and the frescoes and trompe l’oeil are by Giuseppe Guidicini.

In the year following Morse's death in 1893, his widow Olive Ring Merrill Morse sold the house and contents to Joseph Ralph Libby, a local department store owner. The Libby family occupied the house until 1928 after which it was unused until William Holmes purchased it in 1940. He opened it as a museum in 1941, named for Queen Victoria. It was designated a National Landmark in 1971.

The Longfellow house was built between in 1785 and 1986 for Peleg Wadsworth as a two story brick building.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Peleg's grandson by his daughter Zilpah and her husband Stephen Longfellow, lived in the house from the age of about 8 months for 35 years.

In 1815, Stephen and Zilpah added a third story, which is how we see the house today.

Anne Longfellow Pierce (1810-1901), Henry's younger sister, lived in the house until her death; the last family member to do so. She left the house and most of the contents to the Maine Historical Society, which opened the house to the public in the following year, 1902.

We were unable to visit the Neal S. Dow House on the day we went as it was in use for a private function. It was built in 1829 for Neal Dow, who was the 1880 Prohibition Party candidate for the U.S. Presidency. Interestingly, it is now the headquarters of the Maine Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Here are a few views of the areas around Portland Harbor

This is the Liberty Ship Memorial.

This area, the "Bug Light Park", around the Portland Breakwater Lighthouse, was the site of ship yards where many Liberty Ships were built during WWII.

These ships were 441 feet (134 meters) long & 56 feet (17 meters) wide, with a cargo capacity of 9,000 tons. Maximum speed was 11 knots.

A view of the East End district of Portland.

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