X. Clapp Memorial Building

The Clapp Memorial Building was constructed in 1923 and contained offices and retail spaces inside. The building was dedicated to three people. Asa Clapp, 1762-1848, Asa William Henry Clapp, 1805-1851, and Mary Jane Emerson Clapp, 1835-1922. There isn't a lot of information on the Clapp family but I did gather some information on Asa Clapp through the Maine Memory Network and the plaque on the building. According to the plaque, Asa was a "seaman of the American Revolution, merchant, an upbuilder of Portland." It says that his son, Asa William Henry Clapp, was a "citizen of portland, a conservator of its interests, member of the Congress of the United States, colonel in the militia of Maine." Finally, Mary Jane Emerson Clapp was an "upholder of the traditions of her forefathers, a doer of good works."

From the Maine Memory Network, I gathered that Asa Clapp "was a prominent Portland businessman and founder of the Maine Bank, and also had been a Revolutionary War soldier, a mariner and ship builder, legislator and philanthropist." Under the picture of an engraving of Asa Clapp done by Thomas Donney it states that Asa was "a prominent and wealthy businessman in Portland, had been a mariner and soldier. He was prominent in shipbuilding, banking, and other businesses. He also served in the Maine Legislature."

Though I couldn't gather much more than that basic information about the Clapp family, their prominence must have been great to the city of Portland at the time they were alive in order to have this building dedicated to them on Congress street.

When I visited the building, there was no one there to admire it. It was just another building of offices in the area. It was by mistake that I actually happened to look up and see the plaque and become interested in its history.

IX. The First Parish Meeting House

The First Parish Meeting House was the first church in Portland (then Falmouth) and was built in 1720. It is a Unitarian church. According to the First Parish's website, "The poverty of the citizens prevented them from building a house of worship until February 1720, when they voted to build a meeting house. Due to lack of funds, nothing was done until the next year when a tax was imposed for the purpose of purchasing building materials. In July 1721, a site was chosen on the north corner of Middle and India Streets, and in February 1724, the rustic structure was clapboarded. Finally in 1726 the windows were set and glazed, the glass a gift from Governor Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire; The interior was completed in the spring of 1728." Although the house worked for the most part, it began to get too small for Falmouth's growing population. "In 1740, the new meeting-house, Old Jerusalem, was built on the site where First Parish now stands, a 2-story, plain, rectangular shaped meeting house was constructed." In 1759 they errected the steeple and in 1794 the clock tower was put into place. Due to a growing parish, though, "In 1825, construction began on the second granite church in Maine. The completed church was dedicated in February 1826."

The Meeting House was more than a church though. The building was also where official documents of the time were signed and put into action. "In 1749, the “Treaty with the Eastern Indians,” which secured a tenuous peace with the Norridgewock Indians, was signed in First Parish’s Meeting House." It was also the site of the drafting of Maine's constitution in 1819. The Meeting House was also a site for the anti-slavery movement in Maine. In 1882, William Lloyd Garrison spoke at the church against slavery. His words birthed the Maine Anti-Slavery Society when Prentiss Mellon heard him speak and decided to found the society of which he was the first president.

The meeting house/church is still used today for regular church services as well as other community service and rally type events. Last spring I attended the Take Back the Night rally at the church in order to march for the victims of sexual assult. The First Parish Meeting House holds a lot of history for the city of Portland.

When I visited the site around 3:30 in the afternoon, there were a couple of people talking outside the church and using the little gated garden to walk their dog. On other occasions I have seen the church be a site of many posters and projects from locals to help protect the rights of others. I did not go inside but have been into the meeting house portion of the bulding. Inside, there is a cannon ball that hangs from a chain that hit the church in 1775 when the British attacked and burned Falmouth.

I got all of my information from this website. http://www.firstparishportland.org/history3.html

VIII. Our Lady of Victories

The Our Lady of Victories monument sits in monument square in Portland. It was erected in 1891 to commemorate the men lost in the Civil War which ended in 1865. It is also known as the Soldier's and Sailor's monument. On the base of the statue is inscribed, "Portland To Her sons Who Died For the Union." It wasn't very easy to find information on this monument but I did find out that it was designed in Rome by Franklin Simmons in the form of the Goddess Minerva and that it's made from bronze.

When I visited the monument on December 10th around 3:30 in the afternoon, there were a few people around it. Some were looking at it and others were using it as a seat to eat. Whenever I have driven by the site in the afternoons though, it's always bustling with people eating their lunches and using the square. I think that the statue has become such a big part of the area that people may use it every day without really knowing what it is. The square does get a lot of use for events such as walks for Breast Cancer and other community events as it is one of those landmarks that people from out of town as well as inhabitants of Portland can locate easily and know well.

This is a photo of the monument and the square in 1902.

This is the mold used in 1890 to create the statue.

VII. Wadsworth-Longfellow House

The Wadsworth-Longfellow House was built by Peleg Wadsworth in 1785-1786. Peleg was a veteran of the Revolutionary War looking for a new life in Maine. After the house was finished, Peleg and Elizabeth moved their family of 6 children into the home where they would have four more sons. Eventually Peleg and Elizabeth would move to Wadsworth Hall which Peleg also built (in Hiram) in 1795. Here, their son Charles oversaw farming and lumbering operations. Elizabeth passed away in 1825, Peleg in 1829. Zilpah, the Wadsworth's oldest daughter had married Stephen Longfellow of Gorham in 1804 in the parlor of her family home. It was in this home that the famous poet Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow grew up.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in 1807, the second of eight children. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825. He taught French, Italian, and Spanish at Bowdoin in 1829, married Mary Potter of Portland, started teaching at Harvard in 1834, and lost his wife in 1835. When he returned to Harvard in 1836, he really began his literary career. He married Frances Appleton in 1843 and raised their children in Cambridge. According to the Maine Historical Society, "Longfellow also influenced America's artistic and popular culture. His works inspired artists and composers, and his poems were read and recited not only in parlors and schoolrooms, but also at civic ceremonies. Schools, geographic locations, and ordinary products, even cigars, were named for him and for characters from his poems. In the 1870s, schoolchildren celebrated his birthday as if it were a national holiday." His childhood home would go to his sister, Anne Longfellow Pierce who was widowed at a young age and therefore willed the house to the Maine Historical Society after her death in 1901. The house is still open to the public today with almost all of the same artifacts that were present in the house when the family lived there.

The house is the oldest standing structure on the Portland peninsula.

The last photo was taken in 1904.

When I visited the house on December 10th around 3 in the afternoon, there weren't many people around. People would walk by without really looking at the house which I found remarkable. The house is squeezed between two very modern buildings and looks strange and very out of place among one of Portland's busiest streets. I didn't get the chance to go inside and look but I have been inside before on school trip's. It's like walking straight into the past when you get to explore the inside of the home and it really is an insight into history. I didn't know much about Longfellow before I wrote this blog (Thanks Maine Memory for all the great info!) but I could still appreciate how cool it was to be able to see something so old and know it was a part of his history.

VI. Oakhurst Dairy

This is me at the Oakhurst Dairy on Forest Ave in Portland. When I went over from school on December 10th, there were people walkibng by but it seemed that no one really noticed the building. There were a lot of cars parked there and a truck coming out carrying the milk but otherwise, it didn't seem that anyone really noticed it. I hadn't noticed it for the longest time either. I knew it existed but I'd never really looked at it.

The Oakhurst Dairy has been on Forest Ave in Portland since 1921 when Stanley Bennett moved his newly bough Dairy from Woodfords street in Portland. Though the Dairy only started with two horse drawn wagons, it quickly started to grow into a prominent dairy in the area. In 1973, the plant extended into the building next door that used to be an auto-dealership. In this photo from 1951 on Maine Memory Network, you can see where the dealership used to be and where Oakhurst has expanded.

Here is a photo of the new and old forms of milk transport. Other than being the premier Dairy in Maine since the 1920s, Oakhurst has also been a leader in the community. In 1997 "Oakhurst becomes the first major dairy company in the U.S. to provide a financial incentive to it's dairy farmers to abstain from using artificial growth hormone and the first to package its milk with a Farmers' Pledge (no growth hormone) seal." (Oakhurst website). They funded the boys and girls clubs of Maine and new Hampshire, helping to raise 100,000 dollars for 27 locations in the two states. By 2006, "90% of Oakhurst's truck fleet converts to bio-diesel fuel, reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 1,332 tons per year, making Oakhurst the nation's largest bio-diesel dairy fleet." (Oakhurst website) And, in 2008, "Oakhurst invests in energy future by placing 72 solar collectors on site, offsetting 4,400 gallons of #2 fuel oil annually." (Oakhurst website).

The Oakhurst Dairy in Portland is a huge part of our community history in Maine. Not only do we rely on them to give us the quality milk we look for but they also lead us in what Maine is known for: being first in environmental policies.