West End Views

Answering these buildings’ “modern” charms are the buildings across the street, on the square.  Spin around and look almost anywhere else.  There is a riot of brick across the street from “the skyscrapers,” all different colors of brick, installed at all different angles – arches, lentils, pediments, Corinthian columns, windows of all sizes, and intricate stonework galore. it’s a multi course meal all laid out at once on one table for building geeks.

“You’re big,” these buildings say to the “skyscrapers” across the street, “but we’re expressive, and from a time at the turn of 20^th century when people were giddy with the coming of the modern world and no small detail was ever overlooked.”  

It’s in the bricks.   You only have to look up, and look close.

There’s a similar conversation going on just a few feet up the road.   486 Congress Street (built 1877) is having a revealing conversation with Longfellow House (built 1786) who sits just across the street.  Longfellow House (property of the Maine Historical Society) is the first brick building on the peninsula, built of inflammable material in response to a devastating attack by the British during the Revolutionary War.  It’s a solid little number, but downright primitive in terms of brickwork compared to its elegant across-the street 1877 neighbor.

Now move up the street, just a few more feet, past the beautiful, intricately bricked,  and wonderfully named “Beaver Block” (built in 1885) to reach the crescendo. 

  

If you’re looking at a giant elegant grey stone building, home to the Maine College of Art and Design, you’ve arrived; this is the Porteous Building.  It was built in 1904 and is one of the great examples in America of a Chicago school building (the technology coming out of Chicago allowed for giant windows) in a Renaissance Revival style, with beautiful Beaux Arts details.  For years it was home to Maine’s largest department store.  Imagine those giant windows lit up with Christmas displays.  It’s a remarkable and beautiful building that rewards staring at it for a very long time.     

And it’s having its own interesting conversation too.  Across the street is Mechanic’s Hall built in 1857.  It’s classicism, detail, and intricate stone work easily make it one of the most beautiful old buildings in town.

In 1815, the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association was formed to support Maine’s creative community: blacksmiths, coopers, artists, innovators, inventors, and the like.  This is their communal gathering space with a lending library at its center that is often open to the public.  Ask to see the ballroom.That’s Archimedes up there in that arch over the window at the Mechanic’s Hall.  He’s looking around thinking “we’ve come a long ways from that open air Greek Temple we built up on a hill in Athens so many years ago.  This Portland, Maine place is just packed with things to look at……….and I hardly have to move.” 

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