History of Franklin Street, Portland, Maine

These images, along with a brief overview of the history of "slum clearance" in Portland, were presented by city Historic Preservation Program Manager Scott Hanson at the first meeting of the Franklin Street Redesign Committee.

The historic photographs shown here are from the City of Portland's 1924 tax photo collection. As part of a tax re-evaluation in 1924, every taxable building in the city was photographed, including dozens of the historic buildings that would be destroyed to make way for the Franklin Arterial.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Historic Preservation
• Transportation

[rmdrummer87]

I've lived here my whole life.

Seeing these pictures is just unbelievable. Such a shame so many great buildings lost so much history gone.

[cullgmail]

Franklin Street was SOOOO much nicer back in the old days!!!! Today, Franklin Street FRIGGING SUCKS!!!!

[dekaband]

@thegreatponder I lived on the first floor of 316 congress for quite sometime. In the basement is a hole that goes into the tunnel under congress street...true story. Thanks for writing back.

[thegreatponder]

@dekaband - I live at 316 Congress St., it's in the photo where he talks about the "lockshop" (Z-Fabrics) It's the building that you can see in the upper left side of the photo that has the huge icicles hanging off of it. I'm not sure of the exact year that this building was built - although it would have to be somewhere between 1866 and 1900. I was doing some landscaping out back last week and I found a cool old antique bottle in the dirt, maybe it came from the Boston Supply Company...

[dekaband]

I lived at 316a congress street (next to the small building at congress and franklin) I am getting the impression after seeing this that 316 is a relatively new building...I have tried to no avail to find more info on my building but can't find anything. Can you help me find more history on it?

[santiquebabe]

I luv these history lessons and I could listen to Scott Hanson talk for ever. His style is calm and easy to follow .

[valvestem]

Thank you for this video.

[pinkbamboozle]

This is such an interesting glimpse into Portland´s past. It is great that the video is now on youtube, and now I would love to see Scott do more tours of other areas of Portland that have disappeared.

Well done!