Historic Portland Discussion

You are a good sport Daniel and I agree that many buildings that were demolished could have been saved. But as Portland rolled into the 70's "renewal" was the theme for most urban centers in the country and our favorite city followed suit. The good news is that Portland's downtown was not as scarred as many others (even Bangor was not exempt) due to preservation groups and limited demolition grants. Some of buildings that were destroyed to make way for One City Center were salvageable but individual owners eventually sold their properties due the amount of new safety requirements, plumbing, electrical, asbestos removal, ADA, city red tape and the financial feasibility of renovating turn of the century structures. The Old Port was already an acknowledged historic district with no chance of new construction opportunities and the land where the new high rises were built were not. Like you, I'm saddened by some of our losses but we've come a long way since the urban renewal period and Portland has grown into one of the finest small cities in the county in spite of some of the mishaps along the way.
 
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I've added one of my favorite photos (around 1966) of the pre One City Center site which I agree should have been 5 floors taller. Notice the tall flag pole on the roof of the Fidelity Building and additional floors that have been recently added to the top of the Chapman Building.
 
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Portlander said:
additional floors that have been recently added to the top of the Chapman Building.
Click to expand...
Those (light blue, similar to the John Hancock Tower) glass floors, against the beige main core of the building, always reminded me of the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building from the comics. I couldn't find an example from that era, but "Ultra modern perched on something from the Flatiron Building era" was exactly the look.
 
Looking south/southwest from City hall in the early 1870s. Most of the buildings in this scene are gone but you can see the Staples School at the Corner of Spring and Center St. and a row of buildings on Free Street that still stand


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Whoever had that place at (I think) Temple and Federal with five chimneys and a sun room was doing pretty well for himself! Also, no powerlines!
 
@Cosakita18 I love this thread. I’ve always enjoyed looking at old pictures of Portland, especially the aerial photos of the waterfront. The city looked so much more bustling back then, and it gave off big city vibes through some of the pics.
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The bottom is the old Vaughan’s Bridge to South Portland, in front of the rail bridge is where the old Veteran’s Memorial Bridge was built, along with a new (current) rail bridge. Of course, the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge was rebuilt further up river a few years ago.

Credit the Press Herald and the Portland Maine History 1786 to Present FB page. I highly recommend everyone check it out as there are thousands of photos that are well organized. I’ll do a photo dump of some of my favorites
 
This just happens to be my dad’s friend. When he picked up arrestees, he always used to get on the radio and say “We’re off to see the wizard!” He never got in trouble, but I can’t imagine that flying today :LOL:
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Some photos I took from the top of the Time & Temperature Building shortly after One City Center opened around 1986. BIW is at it's peak doing contract work and installing sonar on the Navy's newest Spruance class destroyers.
 
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