The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Portland (Maine)

by J. W. Hawes

PORTLAND, a city and port of entry, capital of Cumberland co., Maine, the largest city in the state, on an arm of the S. W. side of Casco bay, in lat. 43° 39' N., lon. 70° 15' W., 63 m. by rail S. S. W. of Augusta, and 108 m. N. N. E. of Boston; pop. in 1800, 3,704; in 1850, 20,815; in 1860, 26,341; in 1870, 31,413 ; and in 1875, 34,420. The corporation includes several small islands in the bay, but the city proper stands on a peninsula, about 3 m. long, with an average breadth of ¾ m., extending easterly into the bay, with the surface rising from the sides and forming an elevated ridge which terminates at its extremities in two considerable hills. The greater part of the city is regularly laid out and well built, principally of brick, and it is remarkable for the elegance of many of the houses. It is lighted with gas. Many of the streets are lined with elm and other shade trees, and the principal ones are traversed by horse cars. The new custom house, erected at a cost of $485,000, is an elegant granite building, with elaborate marble ornamentation within. The post office is a beautiful structure of white Vermont marble, in the mediæval Italian style, with an elegant portico supported by Corinthian columns. Portland has 30 churches. The city hall is one of the largest and most elegant public buildings in the country. Its front of olive-colored freestone, elaborately dressed, is 150 ft. long, and surmounted with an elegant dome 160 ft. high; the height of the corner towers is 75 ft., and the depth of the building 221 ft. It contains a hall 113 by 80 ft., capable of seating 2,500 persons. It cost about $275,000, and covers an area of 26,155 sq. ft. The Maine charitable mechanic association, incorporated in 1815, has erected a substantial granite and brick building in Congress street, which contains a fine hall, library, and other rooms, and cost $36,000. Its library, intended for the use of members and apprentices, numbers more than 5,000 volumes. The elevated situation of the city affords fine views of Casco bay with its numerous islands, which are favorite summer resorts. Lincoln park, in the central portion of the city, contains about 2½ acres. Evergreen cemetery, containing 55 acres, is about 2½ m. distant, and there are two cemeteries in the city, the eastern and western. Seven railroads have their termini at Portland, viz.: the Grand Trunk, the Boston and Maine, the Maine Central, the Portland and Ogdensburg, the Portland, Saco, and Portsmouth, the Portland and Rochester, and the Androscoggin. The Grand Trunk line extends from Portland via Montreal and Toronto to Port Sarnia, at the foot of Lake Huron, thence connecting with Detroit, a distance of 856 m. The commercial facilities of the city have recently been much extended by the construction of a marginal railroad of nearly 5 m. around the water front, enabling cars to pass directly to nearly all the wharves. There is a daily line of steamers to Boston, and steamers also make frequent and regular trips to New York, St. John, Halifax, and various points on the Maine coast. The Allan line of mail steamships (weekly) and a fortnightly line ply between Liverpool and Portland during the winter, and in the same season there is a freight line at irregular intervals from Glasgow. These lines during the season of navigation in the St. Lawrence run to Montreal and Quebec. The harbor is deep enough for vessels of the largest class, is very extensive and well sheltered by several islands, and in the most severe winters is seldom closed by ice. It is of easy access, and the principal entrance, which lies between the mainland and House island, is defended by Fort Preble on the former and Fort Scammel on the latter. There is also a granite casemated fort on Hog Island ledge in the harbor, commanding the four entrances. The foreign trade is chiefly carried on with the West Indies, South America, and Europe, the exports being for the most part provisions, lumber, ice, and fish, and the imports molasses, sugar, crockery, salt, and iron. The value of imports during 1874 was $25,922,966; of exports, $26,665,646; total foreign commerce, $52,588,612. The value of the foreign commerce in 1873 was $51,244,692; in 1872, $43,988,754; in 1871, $38,417,526; in 1870, $32,097,240. More than four fifths of these sums represent goods received at Portland and immediately transshipped to Canada; the remainder is the foreign commerce proper of the port. The number of entrances from foreign ports in 1874 was 386, tonnage 240,248; clearances for foreign ports, 759, tonnage 268,952 ; entrances in the coastwise trade, 805, tonnage 574,494; clearances 626, tonnage 555,935; built during the year, 33 vessels, tonnage 16,276; built in 1873, 18 vessels, tonnage 7,814; belonging in the district on March 1, 1875, 419, tonnage 110,771; on March 1, 1873, 372, tonnage 90,610. In 1874 there were 112 vessels, tonnage 2,751, employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries. The imports in 1874 included 7,635 hhds., 587 boxes, and 15,100 bags of sugar, and 21,080 hhds. of molasses; the exports, 412,939 sugar box shocks, 283,126 hogshead shooks and heads, 24,786 pairs heading, 1,462,237 hoops, 20,772,991 ft. of lumber, and 6,413 empty casks. The lumber was mostly received from Canada, and the greater part of it was shipped to South America. The receipts of lumber in 1873 amounted to about 150,000,000 ft. The sales of merchandise in the Portland market are estimated to amount to $40,000,000 a year. The receipts of produce by rail for five years have been as follows:

PRODUCE.	1870.	1871.	1872.	1873.	1874.
Flour, barrels	545,259	482,523	488,764	552,227	668,777
Wheat, bushels	396,101	263,898	240,687	135,340	401,745
Corn, bushels	535,641	810,063	806,437	474,847	670,538
Oats, bushels	414,475	197,730	322,173	255,451	242,316
Barley, bushels	77,954	52,279	59,764	36,893	34,479
Peas, bushels	92,704	71,155	168,019	65,946	250,230

The annual value of manufactures is about $9,000,000. The principal articles of manufacture are boots and shoes, moccasins, refined sugar, rolling mill and foundery products, machinery, locomotives, engines and boilers, kerosene, matches, hydraulic cement pipe, kerosene burners and chemicals, leather, varnish, paints, soap, carriages and sleighs, edge tools, jewelry, and stone ware. The canning of corn and lobsters is extensively carried on. Ship building is an important industry of the vicinity, and there are two dry docks for the repair of vessels in the city. It contains six national banks, with an aggregate capital of $3,050,000; a state bank; two savings banks, with deposits to the amount of about $8,000,000; a safe deposit company; and three insurance companies.—Portland is divided into seven wards, and is governed by a mayor and a board of alderman of one member and a common council of three members from each ward. It has an organized police force and a good fire department. Water works have been constructed by a company organized in 1867, which supply the city from Sebago lake, 17 m. distant. It is brought to a reservoir containing 12,000,000 gallons on Bramhall's hill in the W. part of the city, and is thence distributed to the buildings of whatever height. The assessed valuation of property in 1874 was $30,723,936 ($18,141,200 real and $12,582,736 personal), an increase of $900,000 over the previous year. The taxation for the year ending with March, 1875, amounted to $792,710 40, viz.: $147,274 42 for state, $34,019 23 for county, and $611,416 75 for city purposes; besides which there were receipts from city property amounting to $96,830. The total city debt March 31, 1874, was $5,195,800, including $2,347,000 bonds loaned to railroad and other companies and secured by mortgage; sinking fund, $570,332 31; net debt, $4,625,467 69. Sessions of the United States courts for the district of Maine are held here. The principal charitable institutions are the almshouse, female orphan asylum, home for aged women, dispensary, and Maine general hospital, incorporated in 1868 and recently opened, besides a number of benevolent associations. There are 19 public schools, viz.: 1 high, 4 grammar, 2 with grammar and primary grades, 1 intermediate, 9 primary, and 2 ungraded. The number of persons of school age (4 to 21) in 1874 was 10,134; number of pupils registered during the term ending in February, 1875, 5,442; average attendance, 4,242. The amount raised for the support of the schools for the year ending with March, 1875, was $89,700. There is a medical school, incorporated in 1858. The Portland society of natural history was organized in 1843 and incorporated in 1850. Its valuable collections have been twice burned, in 1854 and 1866. Since the latter date a new cabinet has been commenced, which already contains many valuable specimens. The Portland institute and public library, incorporated in 1867, has 15,000 volumes, and the mercantile library, established in 1851, 5,000 volumes collected since the fire of 1866, which destroyed the former collection of 4,000. The Portland Athenæum, incorporated in 1826, had a fine building and a library of 12,000 volumes, which were burned in 1866. A new building has been erected, but the library has not been replaced. Three daily, one tri-weekly, and seven weekly newspapers are published. There are 35 religious societies, viz.: 1 Advent Christian, 2 Baptist, 9 Congregational, 3 Episcopal, 1 Freewill Baptist, 1 Friends', 1 Lutheran (Swedish), 6 Methodist, 2 Roman Catholic, 1 Second Advent, 2 Spiritualist, 1 Swedenborgian, 2 Unitarian, 2 Universalist, and 1 undenominational.—The Indian name of Portland was Machigonne. An English colony settled here in 1632, but during the wars with the Indians, French, and the mother country, it suffered very severely, and the town was three times completely destroyed. Portland, which originally formed a part of Falmouth, was incorporated as a town in 1786, and as a city in 1832. It was visited by a conflagration on July 4 and 5, 1866, which swept away nearly a third of the city, destroying property to the value of $10,000,000. The burned district has since been rebuilt.

Portland.