Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Old Congress Street Photo, Portland ME

Courtesy of Abraham Schechter, who runs the Portland Public Library's Portland Room. Abraham was excavating the storage room last year as he continued his campaign to revitalize and reorganize the Portland Room, and came across a stack of beautiful old glass negatives. He has kindly consented to share a sample of them with us, and here is a great one.

See if you can recognize this intersection on Congress Street in Portland. Abraham estimates the time period of the photo to be circa 1900-1910. Yet many of the buildings shown are still very much as they are today! Click on the photo for a larger version to inspect details.

For any of you interested in researching Maine history, the Portland Room is a one-of-a-kind resource, packed with books and documents with which to while away the hours in blissful historical research.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's my old neighborhood! (Well, not THAT old, but...) That's just past Bramhall Square, yes?

Anonymous said...

Bramhall Street to your left, Deering Street to your right. One of the reasons I love Portland - so much of it still looks the same as it did a hundred years ago...

Chris Jart said...

Wow! It's instantly recognizable if you know Portland. I'm amazed that - other than the cobblestone street - it looks relatively the same.

What a great photo! I can't wait to see more. Really, I can't wait!!!!

Brambor said...

I have some of the cobblestones at my house. A path was created out of them. I found that out when I was buying the house in 1997