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Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a 2004 population of 63,882. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. Tourists are drawn to Portland's historic Old Port district along Portland Harbor, which is at the mouth of the Fore River and part of Casco Bay. Portland Head Light in nearby Cape Elizabeth is also a popular tourist draw. The city seal depicts a phoenix rising out of ashes, which goes with its motto, Resurgam, Latin for "I will rise again", in reference to Portland's recoveries from four devastating fires. The city of Portland, Oregon, was named for Portland, Maine. The Portland Public School District is the largest school system in Maine. The city is also the county seat of Cumberland County. History
Portland was originally called "Machigonne" by the native people who first lived there. It was settled by the British in 1632 as a fishing and trading settlement and renamed Casco. In 1658 its name was changed again, this time to "Falmouth." A monument at the end of Congress Street where it meets the Eastern Promenade is a tribute to the four historical names for Portland. In 1675, the village was completely destroyed by the Wampanoag people during King Philip's War. The community was rebuilt, to be destroyed by the same natives again several years later. On October 18, 1775, the community was destroyed yet again, bombarded during the American Revolutionary War by the Royal Navy under command of Captain Henry Mowat. Following the war, a section of Falmouth called "The Neck" developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center. In 1786, the citizens of Falmouth formed a separate town in Falmouth Neck and named it "Portland." Portland's economy was greatly stressed by the Embargo Act of 1807 (prohibition of trade with the British) and the War of 1812. In 1820 Maine became a state and Portland was selected as its capital. By this time both the Embargo Act and the war had ended, and Portland's economy began to recover. In 1832 the capital was moved to Augusta. Portland was a center for protests concerning the Maine law of 1851 culminating in the Portland Rum Riot on June 2, 1855. The Great Fire of July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes. More than 10,000 people were left homeless. After this fire, Portland was rebuilt with brick and took on a Victorian appearance. Citizens began building huge Victorian mansions along the city's Western Promenade.
But by far the most influential and prolific architects of the Western Promenade area were Francis Fassett (1823–1906) and John Calvin Stevens (1855–1940). He was commissioned to build the Maine General Building (now a wing of the Maine Medical Center) and the Williston West Church as well as several schools and his own home. From the early 1880s to the 1930s Stevens worked in a wide range of styles from the Queen Anne and Romanesque popular at the beginning of his career, to the Mission Revival Style of the 1920s, but the architect is best known for his pioneering efforts in the Shingle and Colonial Revival styles, examples of which abound in this area. The Victorian style architecture, which was popular during Portland's rebuilding, has been preserved very well by an emphasis on preservation on the part of the city government. In 1982 the area was entered on the National Register of Historic Places. In modern lifestyle surveys, it is often cited as one of America's best small cities to live in. The erection of the Maine Mall, an indoor shopping center established in the suburb of South Portland during the 1970s, had a significant effect on Portland's downtown. Department stores and other major franchises, many from Congress Street or Free Street, either moved to the nearby mall or went out of business. This was a mixed blessing for locals, protecting the city's character (chain stores are often uninterested in it now) but led to a number of empty storefronts. Residents had to venture out of town for certain products and services no longer available on the peninsula. Since the mid-1990s, Maine College of Art has been a revitalizing force in the downtown area, bringing in students from around the country, and restoring the historic Porteous building on Congress Street as its main facility. The school has also maintained the Baxter Building, once home to the city's public library, as a computer lab and photography studio. Portland is currently experiencing a building boom, though much more controlled and conservative than a previous building boom during the 1980s. In recent years, Congress Street has become home to more stores and eateries, spurred on by the expanding Maine College of Art and the conversion of office buildings to high-end condos. Rapid development is occurring in the city's historically industrial Bayside neighborhood, as well as the emerging harborside Ocean Gateway neighborhood at the base of Munjoy Hill. Research Tips
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