It’s not too late to get out and enjoy summer in Maine! What are your plans for the last few weeks of Summer? Why not visit some of Greater Portland’s historic sites this year? Here are some suggestions:

Come visit us at the Portland Observatory! In 1807 Captain Lemuel Moody (1768-1846), ordered construction of this octagonal, 86-foot high tower on Munjoy Hill to serve as a communication station for Portland’s bustling harbor. It was a commercial venture designed to give a competitive edge to ship owners who paid Moody a subscription fee of $5.00 a year to alert them when their ships were arriving.
Everyone knows to visit Portland Headlight, probably the most well-known light house in Maine. But have you visited the children's garden or walked along the cliffs to visit the Ecology Project at Fort Williams? Fort Williams Park is open year-round from sunrise to sunset and maintained by the citizens of Cape Elizabeth for all to enjoy. While it’s gorgeous on a sunny day, it’s even a great place to visit on a cloudy or foggy summer day too.
On a hot summer evening take a stroll through Fort Preble (1808) to enjoy cool ocean breezes. Occupied during the War of 1812 and the Civil War, the fort was sold in 1952 to the State of Maine and is now the campus of Southern Maine Community College. Some of Fort Preble's original early 20th Century brick buildings (including officers' quarters, barracks and a fire station), along with perimeter casemates, remain and are in a good state of preservation. Don’t forget to walk out to Spring Point Ledge Light built near the fort in 1897.
You can use our self-guided interactive maps to explore Greater Portland anytime! Our online maps can be used to take a virtual tour from your computer, or you can use them on your phone as you walk around a local neighborhood.
Explore Fort Gorges! Named after Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Fort Gorges was built 1861-1868 by Ruben Smart and is modeled after Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina. Fort Gorges was planned and constructed as one of three forts in Portland Harbor in reaction to the threat of foreign naval powers, initially provoked by the War of 1812. The Friends of Fort Gorges group is actively building awareness and raising funds to preserve the fort.
Take a tour of Eastern Cemetery! Spirits Alive has also developed a virtual tour of the cemetery that you can view while lounging in your hammock or take with you when you visit the cemetery on your own whenever the gates are open between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Sail on a historic schooner! Sailing on a windjammer is the perfect way to experience the beauty of the Maine coast, complete with lighthouses, seals, and seabirds. Windjammers Bagheera, Wendameen, or Timberwind were built in Maine and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Pack a picnic basket - or better yet order lunch or dinner to go from a local business - and enjoy your meal in one of Portland’s historic parks. Catch a sunset from newly designated historic Fort Sumner park, watch the ducks play in Deering Oaks pond, or enjoy the stunning view from the Eastern Promenade.
Mackworth Island is the former home of James Phinney Baxter and of his son, Governor Percival Baxter, and was deeded to the State of Maine in 1943. Currently it is the site of the Baxter School for the Deaf. The island is a legislated bird sanctuary and is connected to Falmouth by a causeway at the mouth of the Presumpscot River. The island is open to visitors from dawn to dusk.
The Cumberland and Oxford Canal was opened in 1832 to connect the largest lakes of southern Maine with the seaport of Portland, Maine. The canal followed the Presumpscot River from Sebago Lake through the towns of Standish, Windham, Gorham, and Westbrook. The Canal diverged from the river at Westbrook to reach the navigable Fore River estuary and Portland Harbor.
The Fore River Sanctuary is the site of the former Cumberland and Oxford Canal. You can walk along the remains of the towpath and see the repair basin, a man-made pond dug for the canal. The nature sanctuary is also the home of Jewell Falls, Portland’s only natural waterfall.
You can also see elements of the canal and towpath in Gambo Preserve. Access the preserve from trail heads in Windham near Gambo Dam or from Gorham’s Shaw Park.

Support Landmarks today!

By Kate Burch

John Calvin Stevens (1855-1940) is one of our hometown heroes – he designed more than 1,000 buildings in Maine, many of them in greater Portland, and his grandson John Calvin Stevens II was one of the founders of Greater Portland Landmarks. JCS, as we call him, could fill several blog posts, but for our August Architect of the Month, we’re focusing on his iconic summer cottages in the Shingle style.

Stevens was born in Boston in 1855 and moved to Portland, Maine with his family at the age of 2. He wanted to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but couldn’t afford it, so he apprenticed in the Portland office of architect Francis Fassett instead. Stevens was a fast learner and a skilled draftsman, and in seven years rose from office boy to partner in the firm, which was renamed Fassett and Stevens. In 1884, he established his own office in Portland, with Fassett’s blessing.

The John Calvin Stevens House (1884) on Bowdoin Street

Shingle Style was coming to prominence around 1880, when JCS was working in Fassett’s short-lived Boston office. The firm worked in the same office building as William Randolph Emerson, who by then was working in his signature Shingle Style, and his work was very influential to JCS. In 1884, upon establishing his own office in Portland, Stevens built his own home at 52 Bowdoin Street in the Shingle Style. One of Portland’s earliest examples of the style, JCS often used it for promotion. The house received international notice after its construction.

Shingle-style architecture developed in the late 19th century as a departure from the lavish decoration of other Victorian styles. Inspired by the simplicity of materials and form of early New England architecture, these houses used natural colors and unembellished shingles on both walls and roof to form a uniform surface. The graying of the cedar shingles as they aged lent a sense of history and connection to New England’s past, and some architects even pre-aged the shakes before installation to achieve a weathered look. Shingle style houses borrow elements from other popular styles of the time, such as the wide porches of Queen Anne homes, the Palladian windows of the Colonial Revival, and the rusticated masonry of the Romanesque Revival.

Kragsyde (1883-1885, demolished 1929), designed by the Boston firm Peabody & Stearns

Though inspired by the rusticity of the local vernacular, these early Shingle Style buildings were far from simple. Shingle Style was popularized by large-scale commissions for seaside summer homes for the wealthy in places like Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts and Newport, Rhode Island. The style never really spread too far from the New England coast – it’s uncommon in vernacular housing. In Maine, it became the style of choice for grand summer homes and resorts that in the late 19th century were increasingly cropping up on Maine’s coast and islands.

C.A. Brown Cottage (1886-87) in Delano Park, Cape Elizabeth, designed by JCS.

Stevens’ Shingle style coastal homes were recognized not just for their style but for their relationship with the landscape. Large piazzas and picture windows, with interior space planned to take advantage of the scenery, made these buildings feel harmonious with their surroundings. It’s perhaps not surprising that Stevens was so good at designing buildings that felt connected to their landscape – he was also an accomplished landscape painter and a member of the Portland-based art group that called themselves the “Brushuns”, who went on weekend sketching expeditions along the Maine coast (Winslow Homer and Charles F. Kimball were also members). Of his design work, his grandson John Calvin Stevens II wrote “The ‘seeing of the site’ is to him ceremonial. Every contour, tree, rock, stream, spring is recorded on the drawing board in his brain. Orientation, vistas and outlooks, prevalent windows and neighborhood developments are studied.”

(If you’re interested in learning more about JCS’s paintings, our book The Paintings of John Calvin Stevens is currently on sale in our shop!)

“Delano Park, Cape Elizabeth” (1904) by JCS

JCS designed dozens of seaside summer homes, from grand estates to more modest cottages, all along the coast of Maine and on the islands. Here are just a few examples of Stevens’ summery projects:

The Homers on Prouts Neck

Prouts Neck in Scarborough was one of many Maine coastal areas that became a fashionable summer resort in the late 19th century. Painter Winslow Homer vacationed there with his brothers Arthur and Charles. All three brothers commissioned JCS to design homes for them on Prouts Neck, the most famous of which is the Winslow Homer Studio (1884), now owned by the Portland Museum of Art. Stevens, in partnership with Francis Fassett, also designed “The Ark”, a summer home for Charles S. Homer Jr. (1882). Later, the three brothers also had JCS design rental cottages for them. For Winslow Homer’s rental cottage, Stevens billed him asking for payment “Any production of Winslow Homer”, a request which delighted Homer, who sent Stevens the painting The Artist’s Studio in an Afternoon Fog.

“The Artist’s Studio in Afternoon Fog” (1894), Winslow Homer

Delano Park

In 1885, a group of Portland businessmen created the Delano Park Association to establish a seaside summer colony in Cape Elizabeth. Four of the 25 original lot owners had JCS design Shingle style cottages for them around the turn of the 20th century. By then, Stevens had twenty years of experience working in the style and his projects in Delano Park ranged from the unique yet modest “Birds’ Nest” cottage designed for musician Harvey S. Murray, to the Frederick E. Gignoux Cottage, a large home with broad porches to take advantage of the elevated site with ocean views on three sides.

Cushing Island

The Ottawa House Hotel opened on Cushing Island in 1862 and the island became a summer resort destination. In 1883, the Cushing family, who owned the island, hired landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead to create a plan for the island’s development, and JCS was commissioned to design the summer cottages. JCS also designed a grand home for the owner of the Ottawa House which was never built.

Stevens made about 12 Shingle style cottages intended to be compatible with the island’s natural beauty, as well as a recently-restored gazebo. The largest cottage was the Charles M. Hays Cottage, designed for the then-president of the Grand Trunk Railroad, which Stevens created in partnership with his son John Howard Stevens. (Hays died 2 years after the house was built, as a passenger on the Titanic).

Cushing Island gazebo restored by Taggart Construction

10 Historic Places to Visit in Greater Portland This Summer

The Summer Cottages of John Calvin Stevens