General Portland Discussion

[Portlander]

Interesting to see that 200 years ago (1820) Portland was the 15th largest city in the United States and Portsmouth at #20 was also a surprise! The last time Portland ranked in the top 100 was during the 1900 census with a population of 50,145 which qualified for the 78th largest.

 

[cranewatch]

Two major updates are now live on cranewatch.biz.

The Housing Pipeline now has a dedicated page. The active residential pipeline stands at 4,776 homes, with 27.1% designated as affordable. The pipeline is sorted by unit type (market rate, affordable, & condo), phase (concept, design, construction), city, and estimated completion year.

Additionally, a new Completed Projects page is now live. This update transitions Cranewatch from a running news feed into a permanent historical archive of what is actually getting built.

 

[Still Tom Nevers]

Story in the PPH today about Sacred Heart (beautiful Catholic church at Mellen and Sherman) closing due to structural issues. From the article:
“The 1896 building is aging faster than the Portland Diocese can keep up with, and repairs would come with a $6 million price tag.

The diocese doesn’t have a plan for the building yet, but will make decisions on its fate in the coming months.

“I wish we could just take it, pick it up and put it somewhere else where it wasn’t falling apart,” Griesbach said later. “It’s in a bad place, where the foundations are collapsing, and where everything’s been going against this building for a long time.””

It would be a shame to lose the building as it is one of most attractive houses of worship in town and fits into the neighborhood so nicely. Curious to know what others see as the likely future for this building.

(Photo is not mine, I pulled it from the Wikipedia page here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart_Church_(Portland,_Maine))

 

[RandomWalk]

I really hope they don’t do an adaptive reuse like they have done to a couple of churches (e.g The Lucas) in the South End of Boston. A great glass carbuncle rising from the shell of the old church. It’s not really reusing the old church.

The old Concord Baptist church in the South End got a more respectful conversion to luxury condos: https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2019/01/30/church-condo-south-end/

 

[MarkHB]

I regret that I never attended mass in that church, so I could see inside. I always meant to, and I suppose I had decades to do it, but alas...

Portland is down to 4 active Catholic churches: the Cathedral, St. Peter's, St. Louis, and St. Pius, plus the one on Peaks Island. St. Joseph's is still standing and remains consecrated, but it's treated as a special shrine or something and they only open it for weddings and funerals.

 

[TC_zoid]

This building/church must be restored and used again. If you don't have the money, do the work to find it. I donated to the Abyssinian Meeting House because of its history. And still, the city has mostly neglected it, and at one point in the 1960s was seriously considering its destruction for a gas station. Some things are worth saving, so it becomes the effort involved.

 

[nomc]

Found some photos via Google, unsure of origin. Some great detail in there, I particularly love the sweeping vaulted ceiling with lunette vaults (I think that's what they're called?) - it has to be steel, right? I hope someone is able to save it.