Portland Past

Portland is the largest city in the state of Maine it rises on a peninsula in Casco Bay overlooking a harbour protected from the Atlantic by a string of forested Islands settled by English colonists in 1633 the community was destroyed twice by Native Americans in the colonial period bombarded by the British during the revolution burned by a fourth of July fire in 1866 and bruised by the great depression and economic stagnation during the 20th century a history of Portland has been a history of one long recovery after another beaten to its knees burned down broken down and that's been the story financially and physically over all the centuries its existed as a settlement yet after each event Portland rose from the ashes like a phoenix which became a symbol for the city with a motto grease or gum I shall rise again [Music] humans have lived in what we now call Portland for thousands of years five thousand years ago marine resources were so rich that Native Americans in large settlements lived off what they caught in Casco Bay in fact it was the excellent cod fishing which attracted the first Europeans to the area in the 1620s the peninsula which became Portland was settled by the Cleves and Tucker families in 1633 these settlers were farmers but they doubled as lumber men since the land had to be clear and there was a market for their wood many of the settlers also fished because fish were so abundant that they could feed their families and sell what was left life for the English settlers here was anything but easy as if the harsh weather word enough there were the Native Americans and the French in the year 1690 the English found themselves besieged by an enraged French and Indian troop that caught them in little tiny fort loyal which stood on a high bluff down at the foot of India Street on the Portland waterfront a part of the city that's totally changed the hill that no longer exists and there they would be siege for three days by the French and the Indians a classic siege the English but in the fort that was too strong to fall and the French and the Indians gathered in the plain around it too strong to leave burning the English houses in front of the very faces of the defenders of the form and finally setting the fort on fire itself the English surrendered to the French while getting a promise of safe conduct out of the harbor sadly when the gates of the fort were open the French allowed the natives to rush in and a terrible massacre resulted and the English settlement was utterly destroyed what was left of the community grew stronger they rebuilt they named the community fountain and they got back to farming fishing and lumbering and now with all that wood available they built boats even large ships and became traders it was the business of masts which came to dominate the port the harvesting of huge pine trees for masts to hold the sails of the British Navy it was a lucrative business then from London came the order Parliament decreed that the largest trees belonged to the king not the local landowner this was fiercely resented by people whose forests thereby lost this tree because these trees were sometimes worth over a hundred pounds apiece British pounds in that day those trees would be worth one hundred two hundred thousand dollars in today's money a staggering fortune for the Kings Navy and for the man that lost it despite the sting of royal interference the people of Falmouth built a shipyard and created a fleet of sailing ships to carry cargoes to England and to the Caribbean where lumber was exchanged for molasses and rum but this second period of growth ended as disastrously as the first with the outbreak of the American Revolution that brought the mast business to an end the British Navy burned the port and most of its vessels during a raid in 1775 there was no armed resistance in town townsfolk fled across the edge of the peninsula into the woods and two ledges which still exist in Portland that you can stand beside as they did 225 years ago and watch their town just get put to the torch the British at the end of the day landed firing parties whose job it was to march from building the building and burn by torch what had survived the bombardment when captain mowett sailed away at the end of that day behind him he C wrote in the ship's log that foul mouth is just one sheet of and what he left behind was a devastated community of about two or three thousand souls with winter coming on in the middle of October no shelter whatsoever and what he also left behind was a big mistake because for New England there was no going back after that no going back to the king after the war the port rose from the ashes of Falmouth and was renamed Portland the new city adopted the Phoenix as its symbol in the 1780s new streets were laid out and grand homes sprang up one was the boyhood home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow one of the only buildings from that period still standing today of that time Longfellow later wrote I remember the black wharves and the slips and the sea tides tossing free and Spanish sailors with bearded lips and the beauty and mystery of the ships and the magic of the sea by the early 1800s Portland ranked as the sixth largest port in the country the trading of wood for molasses again made Portland rich dr. Timothy Dwight's president of Yale College returned to Portland after a 10-year absence we found the building's extended quite to the cove doubled in their number and still more increased in their appearance few towns in New England are equally beautiful and brilliant its wealth and business are probably quadrupled when the ships full of barrels dr. Portland molasses that wasn't sold off to other cities was turned into rum one of the distilleries along the waterfront or into sugar at John Bundy Browns huge sugar house and the port continued to grow the first major wharf Union wharf was privately built after the Revolution by the mid nineteenth century there were 24 major wharfs on the waterfront [Music] citizens organized financed and constructed the Portland Observatory on the highest point in town one joy Hill so that ship owners could be alerted to the arrival of their vessels make preparations for unloading them Portland's growing economic and political prominence allowed the port to gain navigational aids in the form of lighthouses and a breakwater and also to strengthen its defenses four forts were built to protect the harbour before the Civil War [Music] except for a devastating period during the embargo of the war of 1812 Portland's economy grew steadily the city also developed politically [Music] the state's first newspaper the Falmouth Gazette argued that the territory of Maine should separate from Massachusetts the call for statehood snowballed into a constitutional convention held in Portland and when Maine became the 23rd state in 1820 Portland was its first capital the city also developed socially and culturally Portland Marine Society was organized to care for Mariners and their families Portland high school was only the second public high school in the nation rum a demon to some yet Gold weathers drove the city's commerce so much of it was distilled in Portland that stores sold it by the dipper from barrels working men were given rum breaks on the job Neal Dow a business man and devout Quaker discovered the problem of drunkenness early in his life when he was a young man walking down Congo Street here he's seen a little boy in an alleyway inspired no more than eight or nine years old drunk falling down drunk asking for food or asking for something to eat nailed ow gave him some money and told him if you clean yourself up I will help you out and I'll give you more but you have to help yourself and he swore from that moment on that he wasn't do anything he could to abolish this scourge what he considered a scourge from the face of the earth but drinking was in fact a problem for women because the husband sometimes working-class husbands got paid in liquor by their bosses or they were made to work 14 hours and the DAX and it's not a big surprise that they stopped off at the bar and drank before they came home now led the effort to deal with the problem of alcohol abuse by banning the manufacturer and sale of liquor first in Portland then statewide in mid-century but he made bitter enemies when he was mayor of Portland Dow the father of prohibition stored alcohol in the basement of City Hall for medicinal and industrial purposes Dow's enemies found out about it on the 2nd of June 1850 one storm City Hall determined to break down the doors and get the liquor well they misjudged their man mayor Dow called out the city militia and ordered them in ranks to fix bayonets and face down the crowd the crowd charged Dow ordered the militia to fire at the crowd but above their heads in the melee several were wounded and one died but prohibition did not die by him passing a law people came here and wanted to copy this this is why he traveled out throughout the the world he traveled all over Europe england italy france greece he traveled all these places so people could copy his law and again once he passed it here in portland and people actually seen that this law could go into effect it just spread like wildfire every town every city then every state just died copying and copying and then of course in the early 1900's we had national prohibition John a poor a lawyer from the backwoods of Maine was convinced that if a railroad could be built between Portland at Montreal then Portland could be the port for all of Canada during the winter months in the Saint Lawrence River was frozen if only the Canadian bankers could be similarly persuaded John poor and his contemporaries saw their chance and the story is told the John a poor alone in a sleigh in the middle of a February Blizzard rode alone whipping his horses through a howling blizzard through Dixville notch all the way to Montreal in the teeth of this blizzard to convince those men and the bank's there if he could do this with a horse sleigh that think when a railroad could do with some real power behind it story is told that he had two relays teams all the way along the way just waiting would fortify himself constantly with nips from the bottle and his coat huge great black bear skin thing was frozen virtually with him standing erect in sight the Canadians were impressed and the Atlantic and st. Lawrence Railroad is organized financed and constructed the road opened to Montreal 1853 Portland handled the bulk of the winter freight and passenger traffic between the heartland of Canada and Europe was 70 years Portland benefited in a number of ways it provided this this wonderful rail route to ship Maine products to Canada actually to the Midwest of the United States it provided rail service for the towns and cities that had passed through in in Maine and it went up by Lewiston Auburn and up into Canada all of that Freight and those passengers funneled through Portland Portland was an entrepeneur wharfage fees and you know the pilots bringing them in the stevedores and and then all of the people who work for the for the railroads and it boosted Portland's activity in the waterfront tremendously as part of this huge undertaking the portland company was built on the waterfront to construct locomotives for the new railroad when they built the railroad to montreal they needed to link it to the railroads to the south the main central and the boston remain and what they decided to do and this this was you know i'm very ambitious and on many ways audacious project the city decided to fill in the waterfront fourth street was the old waterfront of portland they filled it in and brandt built a brand new street along the waterfront which they named commercial street and then private enterprise built new wharves and warehouses and then they built a railroad connection right down the middle of the street to connect the railroad to montreal on the north side of the waterfront with the southern railroads on the other end it paid off and you can see the Magnificent buildings that they built at that time many which still survive today you [Music] along with Commerce Portland developed manufacturing the sugar industry continued to thrive and now it was canning vegetables seafood and baked goods manufacturing plants sprung up to make everything from hats to matches to chewing gum Irish Italians Greeks and people of other nationalities emigrated to the city to work in the manufacturing plants so what would happen is a boat would come in and blow its horn the women would be living in Gorham's corner sort of on pleasanter danforth they'd hear the horn blowing and they'd pick up their kids they'd go down to the fish plant and they peck fish for like 12 hours straight until all the fish were pecked cleaned and packed I guess - and one of the women said that the fish smelled but the money didn't so although it wasn't the best job in the world it did in fact give them some money in 1861 when war loomed Portland had a surprising number of people who sympathized with the South slavery and the cotton had produced were important to the economy of the booming port city but Portland and the state of Maine's have a greater percentage of their population to fight for the Union than any other state the only time the war came to Portland it was much of a battle in June 1863 a force of Confederate pirates led by lieutenant Charles Reed actually made it into Portland Harbor under stealth of night seized a United States Revenue Cutter the Kaleb Cushing predecessor of the Coast Guard an official United States government vessel and got away with it and would discover the next morning becomed just outside the harbor a furious posse set forward after them put together of furious citizens waving pitchforks and blunderbusses and anything else they could get the Confederates saw the approach of this Posse to blew up the vessel and rode into the Yankee fleet surrendered that was as close as a civil war came to our own doorstep [Music] you just at the moment you would have thought Portland now the civil war being passed steam being well-established rail lines linking us to Canada and steamships to Europe would be poised for its greatest burst of growth that it experienced since the revolution came another tragedy the fourth of July 1866 legend says that a firecracker tossed into the wood shavings of a boatyard on Old Forest Street started a small fire whipped by the fire into a broad front that the City Fire Department's at that time having no water other than that available what was in the bay and what was available in wells good stop this incredible fire swept across the city for almost 24 hours it left over 10,000 people homeless it destroyed virtually every bank almost every church virtually every newspaper virtually every insurance company virtually blocks and blocks and blocks of the old city that still more the stamp of colonial days the ruins looked like the city of Dresden in World War two astonishing fire so large that it was the biggest municipal fire in American history up until that day covered in all the great newspapers of the United States when Longfellow saw what had happened he wrote I have been in Portland since the fire desolation desolation desolation it reminds me of Pompeii and again before the ashes had cooled citizens began rebuilding the city and turning the disaster into an opportunity Portland created its first Park Lincoln Park the city rebuilt some of its streets and created its first water system new building codes resulted in the handsome brick slate roof structures that survived to this day the story of the recovery is as remarkable as the story of the fire within a few months of the great fire of 1866 two huge roads and streets lined with beautiful Victorian buildings that you can still come to Portland to see were largely in place the building boom that followed took place in a matter of months using some indeed of the very old brick that had been recovered from the other fire to build itself and what you see now is the Victorian city you can still visit row upon row of sandstone fronts and beautiful colors fanciful brickwork [Music] through the middle of the 19th century opportunity continued to bring people from far away to live in Portland the Irish moved in fleeing the potato famine african-americans also came to Portland when slavery was abolished in Maine and Massachusetts and eventually in the nation one group that actually surprises people is that there was in fact a fairly big black community in Portland the women in that group as well as the men played we wouldn't in term it to their impact on the community not necessarily big but they were certainly a presence as the 20th century opened Portland especially montjoy Hill was a melting pot most of the hill was either immigrants immigrant families or it was first-generation by far the majority of people leave immigrants are now they were there was big strong Irish community there was a strong Jewish community a very a very very Orthodox Jewish community and you could always count on getting a feud quarter's by going in and turning the lights off and putting a newspaper inside or putting the milk bottle quarter milk in the icebox it was a community of communities [Music] James Phinney Baxter a wealthy businessman who lived in the West End of the city set out to make Portland a community of great buildings parks and monuments he helped create a memorial to Longfellow and another to citizens who served in the Civil War he gave the city a library building and when he was elected mayor he became the champion of a park system for Portland and finally he got into politics because he felt that Portland was now by the 1880s was a mature City and he wanted to approve the aesthetics make it a nicer place to live and to attract other people to come to live there but also tourists he doesn't just want parks he wanted a system parks that would serve the entire city linked together by boulevards and streets that people could walk on and ride on he had a plan at this time people who arrived in the city arrived at Union Station and he wanted an effect a Boulevard from Union Station and to come down by Deering's Oaks and into the heart of the city Baxter expressed his vision for the city in 1903 as this city has changed in the past century so it will in the coming one more imposing and finer architecture grander works of art more beautiful parks new appliances for the comfort and convenience of the people more effective safeguards for the preservation of the public health and larger opportunities for all who will contribute to the common welfare and it happened the Portland skyline grew with the construction of the Falmouth Hotel the new Custom House and Maine General Hospital substantial Victorian homes were built by the upper classes near the western promenade the new Grand Trunk railroad station and the Magnificent Union Station were built to serve the Boston and Maine and Maine Central Rail road's Union Station became the new gateway to Greater Portland in the age of the railroad from the station's trolley cars carried tourists and citizens throughout the city's neighborhoods the time when neighborhood and one big family these people acted like an extended family so when you stepped outside one or two of these people were always in view they were this was a real crowd of people that was up on the hill that brought the services to the hill and it was very he herded every tie every hour of the day your mother wouldn't like that and you knew very well that your mother was going to hear about it and that that was my mother's extended radar Network and every other mother because they all know us all of firemen and the policeman and the IceMen and the milkman on and on they all know us Portland faced crisis again this time the national disaster of the depression the Canadian government had already begun shifting its commerce away from Portland to the cities of Eastern Canada in the 1920s the loss of Canadian freight combined with the Great Depression was ruinous to the economy of Portland on one Joy Hill wealth was counted in nickels and quarters and families made the best of it was certainly no money for modern appliances your mother's clothes line ran from your house to the next house on a pulley and so she'd washed the clothes put them out on the pulley and pull the pulley in until she had the whole clothesline filled the middle of the winter everything you know as I mentioned the sight of long johns frozen stiff and able to stand up by themselves not something you easily forget if the harshness of winter could be survived the reward was the glorious summer at the bottom of the hill where the land joins the sea at East End Beach that was great headed did the bathing houses there the Wonder on one side and then on the other side and we go down there early in the morning because mother was matron but stay there all day take a lunch I take my knitting there sit there they listen about the counters walking from back I'll go out to fraud gorges there was some work around town the programs of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal rebuilt the city streets had created a new entrance to the city by a route 1 and Vaughan's bridge and as quickly as the city lost its economy in the 20s the 40s made Portland into a boomtown a new connection to Montreal this time a petroleum pipeline turned Portland into one of the biggest oil ports on the East Coast and then the nation went to war Bath Iron Works won a contract to build Liberty ships at a new yard in South Portland this shipyard became the largest industry in Maine it employed 30,000 people and people came from all over Maine and exit from New England to Portland to work in the shipyard that was a tremendous economic boost to Greater Portland in Maine but also almost every industry got some kind of war contract you know textile mills shoe factories machine shops there was a shortage of workers because of the draft and so women for the first time we're encouraged to join the workforce and did [Music] the military quickly built defenses around Portland and the islands of Casco Bay to protect what had become one of America's most important harbors the citizens knew that Portland could be a target so when the air-raid sirens went off people took the warnings seriously I camara being on Congress Street one time is it an airplane observer and coming out Congress Street and it was amazing I was in a bicycle I rode right down the middle of Congress Street there wasn't a car around me the trolley calves were pulled Oh or not pulled over but they were they discharged all the passengers everybody was in in an air-raid shelter everything stopped every single thing the city just stopped and although German u-boats look just offshore Portland was never attacked the prosperity that the war brought ended when the shipyard closed defense contracts ran out and the Army and Navy left Portland slipped back into stagnation that lasted for decades things changed and not always for the better the Maine Turnpike and the Portland Airport replaced the railroad and the port as the principal means of moving Freight and people the port area went into decay the train started disappearing people left Mon joy Hill for the suburbs the great union station was demolished to make way for a strip mall for some people in Portland that was all they could stand the destruction of the railroad terminal so outraged the public that they formed a preservation group called Greater Portland landmarks the group selected as its symbol the Portland Observatory is still standing after 150 years they began working to convince government and business that it was better to renovate and reuse rather than destroy the historic buildings which made the city distinctive the 1970s saw another of Portland's remarkable rebirths as it happened Main and Portland's economic stagnation and lack of industrial development made it attractive to a new generation of Americans from urban areas who are looking for quality of life property was inexpensive traffic was light the air was clear they moved in found good jobs or started businesses renovated older homes patronized restaurants supported the Arts and often got involved in local government in the 70s Maine and Portland in particular got discovered by the yuppies you know the young upwardly mobile professionals and and people began moving to Maine just because it was less developed less crowded more open land and recreational opportunities and good leadership in local government began to use a combination of local and federal resources and private investment to rebuild a healthy downtown and waterfront the old port full of shops restaurants and hotels became one of the leading tourist attractions in New England the Cumberland County Civic Center and a new public library an art museum and a children's museum were all built downtown supported by municipal parking garages the Maine Historical Society and the Maine college of art both acquired and renovated buildings one of the old railroad wharfs and warehouses was turned into an international ferry terminal and the port is visited by more and more cruise ships each year the city also built a fish pier at fish auction house support one of its oldest industries and constructed a new Casco Bay ferry terminal better serve its citizens who live on the islands in the bay last 20 years the South Portland has done some very farsighted things they have worked out and helped to keep this up a viable growing community countless citizens gave time and money to make Portland into a modern friendly place to call home philanthropist Elizabeth Noyes transformed much of downtown by starting a bank and buying and revitalizing old buildings and opening a public market complex you know have been fortunate to have you know ambitious had working visionary people who have taken the lead and and who have been willing to make that investment in bringing it around again like Elizabeth Noyes who made Portland her adopted city and used her money to help in the revitalization of Portland's downtown and played a very key role in doing that so you you know today we can see how Portland has you know risen from the ashes of the of the 50s and 60 Courtland did rise yet again as it had in the past from enemy attack devastating fires and economic depression Portland is now an attractive livable small city full of economic social and cultural opportunities attracting more and more visitors and new citizens each year longfellows words reflect what many have come to discover about Portland Maine often I think of the beautiful town that is seated by the sea often in thought go up and down the pleasant streets of that dear old town and my youth comes back to me [Music]

Channel: gaffersband

Views: 19,126

Rating: 4.8730159 out of 5

Keywords: Sonic Pictures, Michael Boucher, Mike Boucher, Angie Helton, 480 Digital, Portland, Maine, Portland Maine, Portland history, Portland documentary, Maine tourism

Id: 5UzyjkmAl6w

Length: 34min 3sec (2043 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2017