Greater Portland and Casco Bay Region
Visiting Downtown Portland and the Stroudwater Historic District
Tour Highlights
This tour shares pre-statehood homes and a few other structures of Portland, mostly focusing on the downtown core and the Stroudwater Historic District.
Be sure to check out what's happening in Westbrook - a member of the National Main Street Community!
Getting Started
This tour starts at 156 State Street in Portland. The tour route is approximately 10 miles and will take roughly 2 to 3 hours, depending on if you choose to walk for a portion.
- Each tour stop on the map's address is linked to Google Maps so you can swiftly navigate from location-to-location if you choose Google for mapping. You can also use the address in your car's navigation system.
Be safe and aware of your surroundings whilst driving.
- Many properties on the tour are private places; be respectful of private property and remain on the public way at all times.
Click here to access a printable version of this tour.
Except as otherwise noted in the tour, the source for information about the properties has been gathered from each one’s National Register of Historic Places nomination.
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1
Hunnewell-Shepley House (Portland Club)
Built ca. 1805, Federal
The Portland Club, a three-story wood and brick slightly hipped roof Colonial house, was designed by the Portland (later Massachusetts) architect Alexander Parrish.
Richard Hunnewell was the high Sheriff of Portland from 1809-11 and 1812-21. He also participated in the Boston Tea Party with his father at the age of fourteen. Other prominent residents include Ether Shepley, a Senator from Maine and Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, and his son George F. Shepley, Colonel of the Twelfth Maine Regiment during the Civil War, military governor of Louisiana, and later a Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court.
In the 1920s the residential house transitioned into its use as a Republican political club - The Portland Club. During this time the building was altered (by the firm of John Calvin Stevens) and a large, connected meeting hall was added at the rear of the house. Today the Club exists as it did in the 1920s and is a popular rental space for events. Learn more about the Portland Club .
It is a contributing structure to the Spring Street Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
2
Joseph Holt Ingraham House
Built ca. 1801, Federal
The Joseph Ingraham House was designed by the popular local Portland architect Alexander Parris, however, very little of the interior that Parris designed has been retained. Interestingly, the original wooden paneling was removed in the 1920s and transported to Washington, DC where it was installed in the Blair House - now the Presidential Guest House.
Joseph Holt Ingraham was a silversmith who moved to Portland from York in 1768. He donated various parcels of land to Portland, including State Street itself. He also built Ingraham Wharf in 1793. Ingraham served as a selectman for eleven years, in addition to representing Portland in the General Court of Massachusetts for ten.
In 1816 the house was sold to William Preble, a district attorney, judge of the Maine Supreme Court, an ambassador to the Netherlands, and a founder and president of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad. Following Preble's death in 1857, the house was bought by James M. Churchill, a shipmaster who formed Churchill, Browns, and Manson, a mercantile business. Churchill owned the house until 1882.
3
Nathaniel Dyer House
Built ca. 1803, Federal
The Nathaniel Dyer House is one of Portland's oldest freestanding masonry structures built for a middle-class family and is especially significant for its use of brick, less common at the time. According to Willis' "History of Portland" from 1833, of 526 houses in Portland in 1803, only 26 were brick.
Nathaniel Dyer purchased the land in around 1800. An early settler, ship owner and captain in Cape Elizabeth, Dyer subsequently built this home on the property in 1803. Although Nathaniel died in 1823, the house remained in the Dyer family through the 20th century.
4
William Minott House
Built ca. 1805-07, Federal
The William Minott House is a distinctive three-story Federal style wood frame dwelling with a low pitched hip roof. In 1866 a fire tore through the city of Portland on the Fourth of July (at the time, it was the worst fire ever in an American city), and luckily the Minott house survived. Today it represents a style rarely seen in the city after the fire.
Originally constructed as a home for himself, the house-wright William Minott made substantial additions in 1807, effectively converting the house into a three-family home for himself and his two sons.
5
Thomas Delano House
Built ca. 1800, Federal
Thomas Delano, a blacksmith, commissioned the home and its carriage house and lived there with his wife and four children. Known for his brawn, he is the subject of many legends, one of which has him moving a 1,200-pound anchor from a wharf to a ship for a crew of struggling mariners in exchange for a pair of shoes. When the sailors didn’t make good on their promise, Delano tossed the anchor back onto the dock.
After his death, the home passed on to a customs collector and U.S. district judge, before becoming the headquarters of John Calvin Stevens’s architectural firm, then run by his son and grandson, in the 1960s.
It is a contributing structure to the Spring Street Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
6
McLellan-Sweat Mansion
Built ca. 1800-01, Federal
The McLellan-Sweat Mansion, now part of the Portland Museum of Art complex, is a three-story brick house built by Hugh McLellan using some designs by the Massachusetts architect Alexander Parrish. The interior includes wainscotting, carved moldings, and door and window panels. The mansion is one of Portlands finest Federal style dwellings and a lasting local landmark.
The mansion was built in 1800 for Hugh McLellan, a wealthy merchant, from plans prepared by John Kimball, Sr., an architect and builder. It was later acquired by Asa Clapp in 1820, and was the residence of General Joshua Wingate and his family from 1823 to 1880.
Lorenzo de Medici Sweat purchased the property in 1880, and in 1907 his widow left the mansion to the Portland Society of Art on the condition that a suitable memorial building be erected. The house is now a part of the Portland Art Museum, which was designed by the architect John Calvin Stevens and built in the rear of the mansion. Learn more about the museum .
It is a contributing structure to the Spring Street Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
7
How Family Houses
23 Danforth Street ; 40 Pleasant Street ; 30-32 Pleasant Street , Portland
Built ca. 1799, 1817, 1818, Colonial/Federal Transitional
The How Houses comprise three historically and architecturally significant residential buildings: The Daniel How House, the John How House, and the Joseph How House. All three of the brother's houses are brick, Federal style houses that create a kind of "federal island" recalling the appearance of the city as it was during the early 19th century.
The Daniel How house in particular is one of the oldest residences on "The Neck", having survived the great fire of 1816. It was built for Daniel How, a Portland hatter who later became a merchant. Both the John How (1817) and Joseph How (1818) houses were built for his sons.
They are contributing structures to the Spring Street Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
8
Wadsworth Longfellow House
Built ca. 1785-86, Georgian
The Wadsworth-Longfellow House is a large, three-story seventeen room brick house and is historically significant for being the boyhood home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The house was built by his grandfather, the General Peleg Wadsworth. Longfellow lived here until 1822 when he entered Bowdoin College.
The last member of the family to live in the house was Anne Longfellow Pierce, the poet's younger sister; in 1901 she donated the building to the Maine Historical Society with the stipulations that it be maintained as a memorial to the Wadsworth and Longfellow families and that the Society construct a library-headquarters at the rear of the same lot.
Today the house is a museum owned by the Maine Historical Society showcasing the life and furnishings of both the Wadsworth and Longfellow families. Learn about the museum and the MHS .
9
Eastern Cemetery
Ca. 1688
The earliest recorded burial at the Eastern Cemetery (chartered in 1668), located on the eastern end of the Portland peninsula, was in 1718 and was continuously used until the mid to late 19th century. Originally only the southeastern half of the present cemetery was used, with the other half being fenced and used ass a public common until it was folded into the cemetery in 1820.The cemetery, which holds over 4,000 graves of Maine residents, is a local landmark and an important place of remembrance in the city.
10
Portland Observatory
Built ca. 1807
The Portland Observatory (1807), an unusual wooden building, is an 82-foot octagonal tower (about 141 feet above sea level) which stands at the top of Munjoy Hill in Portland, offering panoramic views of the city.
Built by sea captain-turned-entrepreneur Lemuel Moody, the Portland Observatory served a vital function as a maritime signal station for Portland's bustling harbor. Moody's signaling system, which employed both flags and colored balls, was unique to the observatory, and can be traced to ancient visual communications systems.
The tower was also part of a large complex of buildings that were intended as a recreational complex and included a bowling alley. Now, it stands alone and has been restored and turned into a museum on the first floor, with access to the lantern at the top of the tower. Today, it is the only known extant example of a maritime signal station in the United States.
11
John B. Russwurm House
Built ca. 1810, Federal
The John B. Russwurm House, a Federal style house of common Federal-era Maine vernacular, is historically significant as the only surviving building associated with John B. Russwurm (1799-1851).
Russwurm was the Nation's second black college graduate and founder and editor of the America's first black newspaper - the Freedom Journal. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1826 and then moved to New York City where he founded the Freedom Journal. A proponent of emigration as opposed to abolition, Russworm eventually moved to the colony of Liberia, and then Las Palmas where he became the first black governor of a black overseas colony. He was governor for 17 years during which time he outlawed slavery and instituted education for women. Russwurm's fascinating life and impressive achievements are important aspects of Maine's black history.
12
Rhoda Partridge House
Built ca. 1805 with later alterations, Cape with Greek Revival detailing
Originally a center chimney cape built on the Southwest side of the Stroudwater River, it was moved to its present site in 1839. The upper half story and Greek Revival features were added later.
Rhoda Partridge (1755-1834) was the first female schoolteacher in the school in Stroudwater Village. She was engaged to Daniel Dole, Jr., who fell in love with and married Rhoda’s niece, making Rhoda the “spurned woman” of the village. Dole later took in Rhoda. She is interred in the Stroudwater Burying Ground.
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
13
Francis Waldo House (Captain Daniel Dole House)
Built ca. 1765, Georgian
A two-and-a-half story, gambrel roofed building with a one story lean-to along the rear. The wooden corner posts are carved to look like quoins. There were once fireplaces in the attic where the Captain's slaves were locked at night.
Francis Waldo, son of General Samuel Waldo, acquired the property upon his father's death in 1759. Francis was a Harvard graduate and the first collector of customs for Portland (then Falmouth), along with being named to the General Court in 1762 and 1763.
After Francis Waldo's death in 1770, Daniel Dole purchased the property. The property would remain in the Dole family for a century and a half before being sold in 1924.
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing.
14
Stroudwater Burying Ground
Ca. 1727
The oldest stone, now undecipherable, is that of Joanna Frost, 1739. Early stones are simply ornamented.
It is contributing to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
15
Polly Porterfield House
Built ca. early 1800s with later alterations, Cape
Originally a cape, the second story was added after 1855. Polly Porterfield (1780-1854) and her sister Peggy owned and operated a gift shop out of their home, called the “West India Company.” Polly never married and was called the "spinster of Durham." Legend states that she would offer neighborhood boys peppermint sticks if they would pick up twigs in her yard and bring them to her.
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
16
Tate House
Built ca. 1755, Georgian
The Tate House, one of the areas only Pre-Revolutionary houses open to the public, is especially architecturally significant for its subsumed dormer in a gambrel roof (or indented gambrel roof), one of only a few houses like it in Maine.
It was built for Captain George Tate who worked for the British Navy in Stroudwater, which at the time was one of the premier shipping ports for masts (which were often sent to England). The gambrel roof dormer allowed Tate, a Mast Agent for the Royal Navy, to see approaching ships and the Great Bridge.
Original features include the unpainted featheredge clapboards, raised paneling and bolection mouldings, and the cove cornice in the front hall.
The Tate House has functioned as a museum since 1936 and continues to offer a glimpse into the home of a wealthy 18th-century family. It was restored as a museum by the National Society of Colonial Dames in Maine. Learn more about the museum .
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
17
Captain James Means House
Built ca. 1797, Georgian
The Captain James Means house is a two story, hipped roof building with four chimneys featuring brick end walls and a clapboard front and rear. It features notably fine McIntyre style woodwork.
James Means was a Captain in Washington's army, serving at Valley Forge and Bunker Hill. Upon moving to Stroudwater after the War, he worked as a shopkeeper in George Tate's store. James and his wife lived above the store for a time until he had the means to build his own home across the street from Tate in 1797 on the triangle of land that was the former site of Colonel Westbrook's mast yard. According to Tate House Museum, the Tate and Quinby families were not happy about this new house being built, because it ruined their view of the river and bridge in front of their houses.
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .
18
Oakes Sampson House
Built ca. 1802, Federal
The Oakes Sampson house is a two story, hipped roof building with a center chimney and cove ceiling present throughout the entire second floor.
Built in 1802 by Oakes Sampson, it was later the home of the American Impressionist painter Walter Parsons Shaw Griffin in the early 1920's.
It is a contributing structure to the Stroudwater Historic District. View the district's National Register listing .