The Casco | 201 Federal Street | Portland

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Just prior to the construction (1976) of the Temple Street garage which shows the new street alignment you mentioned Mark.
 
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Photo from around 1972 showing the Holiday Inn under construction and the Canal Plaza parcel cleared. Spring Street Arterial has made it down to Center Street and the buildings have not yet been razed for the Temple Street garage. Who would have guessed that Maine's tallest building would eventually be built near the center of the photo 50 years later!
 
In that last photo (1972), where Pleasant Street park is now, it looks like there's a swimming pool or something surrounded by asphalt or low cut grass... Any idea what was going on there?
 
Wow ... Portland has been really good at ripping stuff down, but not building anything.

I really wish some of the buildings in Monument Square torn down for One City Center were kept.

I hate the big fat bottom of One City Center and would rather have had a taller, more attractive building facing Temple Street. The older buildings could have been saved behind it and proceed with eliminating the street for a pedestrian walking space as it is now. (Helena Montana has a street similar to this). Or two buildings TALLER could have been built in that huge footprint.

I feel like downtown has an abundance of parking garages. Though it will be argued it's still not enough for commuters, it drives me crazy why Maine didn't invest in public transportation, rail, etc instead.
 
Though I understand your sentiment, many projects have been built in the city since urban renewal leveled many derelict buildings that could not be renovated and were not historically relevant. We sometimes tend to forget all of the new construction (some good, some bad) that has happened downtown since 1970:

One Monument Square, Holiday Inn, Canal Plaza (3 buildings), Spring Street Garage, Cross Insurance Arena, 511 Congress Street, 100 Middle Street (2 buildings), Temple Street Garage, Portland Public Library, Two Monument Square, One City Center, Back Bay Tower, Two City Center, One Portland Square, Elm Street Garage, Portland Museum of Art, Two Portland Square, Cianchette Block, Custom House Garage, Hilton Garden Hotel, Casco Bay Garage, Cumberland County Courthouse, Portland Harbor Hotel, 130 Middle Street, 2 Moulton Street, Portland Pier, Oak Street Lofts, Hyatt Place, One City Center Garage, Aura, Aloft Hotel, Residence Inn by Marriott, The Hiawatha, Canopy Hotel, NBT Bank (Commercial St), Fore Street Garage, Courtyard by Marriott, Hampton Inn, Chandler's Wharf, Bangor Savings Bank (Fore St), Portland Police Headquarters, 201 Federal Street, 5 India Street, WEX Headquarters (2 buildings), AC Hotel, Ocean Gateway Terminal, Walker Terrace (Congress St), Arts District Garage (Brown St), 16 Middle Street (Tilson), Sun Life Headquarters, 62 India Street, USM Law (Custom House St), Franklin Street Residential (3 buildings), Covetrus Headquarters, 20 Thames Street, 40 Free Street, Portland Public Market and garage, York Street residential, cPort Credit Union, Ocean Gateway Garage, Chestnut Street Lofts, Longfellow Hotel.

Over 65 new projects and I'm sure I missed a few and feel free to add. I didn't have time to cover Bayside north of Cumberland Avenue! :)
 
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Portlander said:
Photo from around 1972 showing the Holiday Inn under construction and the Canal Plaza parcel cleared. Spring Street Arterial has made it down to Center Street and the buildings have not yet been razed for the Temple Street garage. Who would have guessed that Maine's tallest building would eventually be built near the center of the photo 50 years later!
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I will say, that's probably the cleanest photo I've seen of Spring Street ending at Center. For all we talk about the changes to Monument Square, etc., that had to be the most significant upgrade: shifting Temple and pushing Spring through to create the "streets with four names" intersection where formerly only two came together.
 
markhb said:
I will say, that's probably the cleanest photo I've seen of Spring Street ending at Center. For all we talk about the changes to Monument Square, etc., that had to be the most significant upgrade: shifting Temple and pushing Spring through to create the "streets with four names" intersection where formerly only two came together.
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Also in the 1972 photo, Sears has vacated their building on Oak and Free for the climate controlled Maine Mall with Maine Blue Cross and Blue Shield renovating it for office use. The Spring Street Garage was just getting ready to open with final work still being done on the upper level. Interesting to see the dilapidated cluster of buildings that were demolished to make way for the Cumberland County Civic Center in 1976 and I'm drawing a blank on the name of the factory. Imagine the path of destruction through the Old Port if Spring/Middle continued all the way to the Franklin Arterial as originally planned.
 
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The Old Port wouldn't have happened, plain and simple. But I wonder which was the bigger force behind Landmarks stopping it: Middle St., or the damage it would have done to the Park Street Rowhouse where, AFAIK, one of the very influential founders of Landmarks (and later City Councillor) still lives.
 
Man, that was WHOLESALE remaking! That's "Let's send Sim City Godzilla through and start over!" And yet some existing buildings remain: you can see the Commerce and Chapman Buildings, First Parish, and the City Hall / Portland High block. And the Civic Center taking out the first two blocks of Deering St.??? It would have been HUGE.
 
Portlander said:
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Greater Portland Landmarks
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Does this imply that Congress Street was intended to be pedestrianized from Temple St. to Congress Square?? and if I'm reading the legend correctly...the blocks between Commercial and Spring / Middle *(the heart of the Old Port) were intended to be zoned INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE?!?!
 
Cosakita18 said:
Does this imply that Congress Street was intended to be pedestrianized from Temple St. to Congress Square?? and if I'm reading the legend correctly...the blocks between Commercial and Spring / Middle *(the heart of the Old Port) were intended to be zoned INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE?!?!
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No, Congress is listed as a "Minor 2-Way Street"; i;e;, not a major traffic circulator (the proposal was for a Cumberland Avenue Arterial to mirror Spring St.) And "Industrial/Warehouse" was the historic usage pattern for much of the Old Port; I remember when the building that is now the Regency Hotel was an active C.H. Robinson paper warehouse. Hell, when I got my license it was still the norm for semis to back into loading docks on Commercial St., sticking out perpendicular into the roadway so that you had to watch out for trucks AND trains! Most of those older brick buildings on the landside of Commercial were active warehouses.

I'm most amused by the idea of parking garages on Park St.
 
markhb said:
No, Congress is listed as a "Minor 2-Way Street"; i;e;, not a major traffic circulator (the proposal was for a Cumberland Avenue Arterial to mirror Spring St.) And "Industrial/Warehouse" was the historic usage pattern for much of the Old Port; I remember when the building that is now the Regency Hotel was an active C.H. Robinson paper warehouse. Hell, when I got my license it was still the norm for semis to back into loading docks on Commercial St., sticking out perpendicular into the roadway so that you had to watch out for trucks AND trains! Most of those older brick buildings on the landside of Commercial were active warehouses.

I'm most amused by the idea of parking garages on Park St.
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Great point. I'm wondering if the intention behind that zoning was to preserve the legacy uses within the Old Port or incentivize new / "modern" facilities in an attempt to revitalize the Port (which was experiencing a sharp decline in the 60s and 70s)
 
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