February is Black History Month, and you can celebrate by exploring these online resources about the sites of our region’s rich African-American past.

Maine Baseball Hall of Fame inductee John Gaskill and his family were among the residents of Munjoy Hill’s Black community that you can read about on our blog. The Gaskill family home at 24 Montreal Street is currently for sale, and could be torn do… — Maine Baseball Hall of Fame inductee John Gaskill and his family were among the residents of Munjoy Hill’s Black community that you can read about on our blog. The Gaskill family home at 24 Montreal Street is currently for sale, and could be torn down by the new buyer.

Pfc. Robert Holley stationed in North Yarmouth, 1942

During the 19th and early 20th century, Munjoy Hill was home to a vibrant African-American neighborhood. Read about some the homes and histories of these families on our blog, in part one and part two. You can also explore these stories, along with the wider history of the Hill, in our Munjoy Hill virtual walking tour!
St. John & Valley Street was also historically home to a Black community. The lodging and cafes in the Green Book for Portland are located in the St. John/Valley Street neighborhood. One important resident was Moses Green, who was born into slavery in Maryland and later became the wealthiest African-American man in Maine with his real estate company that helped Black families buy homes. Explore the neighborhood with our virtual walking tour!
Learn about the Black Guards of Maine in an online exhibit at the Maine Historical Society. The Black Guards were African-American soldiers sent to guard the state’s railways during World War II, including in North Yarmouth. The Maine Historical Society also sells some great publications about Maine’s Black history, available here. (Another great book available online is Maine’s Visible Black History by H.H. Price and Gerald Talbot.)
The Abyssinian Meeting House is one of Portland’s most important landmarks. Learn more about the building’s story and the tireless efforts of the Cummings Family to restore it. Portland’s India Street neighborhood was home to a Black community with many members affiliated with the Abyssinian. Explore the history of India Street in our virtual walking tour!
The Atlantic Black Box Project is a collaborative endeavor to explore the history and legacy of the slave trade in New England, and uncover underrepresented histories and the origins of racial injustice in our region. Learn about the rural African-American community of Peterborough, Maine in this lecture with Dr. Kate McMahon of Atlantic Black Box. You can also explore a wealth of fascinating stories from throughout New England (including some guest posts by Landmarks!) on the ABB blog.
Historian Bob Greene recently recorded a lecture on Maine’s Black history with a focus on Yarmouth. Watch the video, hosted by the Yarmouth Historical Society, here!
Learn the fascinating story of Bishop Healy’s cottage on Little Diamond Island, Maine, in this talk by Harry Pringle for the Portland Public Library’s Sustainability Series. Healy was the first Black Catholic bishop ordained in the United States.
Portland’s Indigo Arts Alliance is collaborating with Atlantic Black Box on a series called ReMapping New England. Described as a “historical recovery project”, it explores public art, social activism, monument making, and collective memory. Watch the first lecture here, or register for their next event.
The newly launched Black in Historic Preservation collective highlights past and present contributions of Black people to the field of historic preservation, and includes the Black Preservationists Directory. You can learn about justice, equity, and representation in historic preservation by watching the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation’s symposium Re-Centering the Margin: Justice and Equity in Historic Preservation. All sessions are available on YouTube here.

By Alessa Wylie

Perez Burham House — Perez Burnham House

One of Maine’s most accomplished architects of the early 20th century was George Burnham (1875 – 1931) of Portland. Born in Portland, he received his professional training from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He briefly worked in Boston before moving to New York City to become a partner in the firm of Tryon, Brown & Burnham. He designed a number of houses on Long Island before developing typhoid and pneumonia and moving back to Portland in 1902. Back in Portland, he designed a house for his father Perez Burnham on the Western Prom, and the Somerset Apartments on Congress Street for Henry Rines.

In 1904 Burnham beat out eight other architects from Portland and Massachusetts, including John Calvin Stevens, Frederick Tompson, and Francis Fassett, to win the competition to design the Cumberland County Courthouse. The deciding factor for him to be chosen over these other established architects seems to have been the fact that his design achieved the right balance of architectural grandeur at a reasonable cost. According to newspaper accounts at the time, other designs were favored but would have been more expensive. The courthouse construction kept Burnham busy from 1905 until its completion in 1909. He did, however, work on smaller projects including design of the B.H. Bartol Library in Freeport in 1905. In 1910 he designed the Stanley Pullen Memorial Horse Trough just down from the Courthouse on Federal Street.

In 1909 Burnham took on E. Leander Higgins, a fellow M.I.T. graduate, who became a partner in 1912. Together they designed plans for houses and factories. The houses they designed were large, spacious and comfortably laid out. In 1912 he built a semi-detached double house at the corner of Carroll and Chadwick Streets, and lived in one of the houses for two years before designing a house and one for his mother next door in Falmouth Foreside.

In 1913 Burham and Higgins designed two large factories in two quite different settings. The Burnham & Morrill Plant, with its highly visible location, highlighted the more ornamental aspects of the building by contrasting the concrete, brick and glass of the exterior. The building immediately became a local landmark and remains one today.

The Portland Shoe Manufacturing Company, on the other hand, was located on Pearl Street in a dense urban setting. The building was tall and narrow following the latest architectural trend of simplicity of design. In both buildings the architects chose to emphasize the building materials used in their structures rather than applied decorations.

By 1917, Burnham & Higgins was one of the leading architectural firms in Maine designing for individuals and businesses, but when the U.S. entered World War I, George Burnham enrolled in the Army’s Officer’s Candidate School where he thought his engineering skills could be put to good use. While in training in Kentucky he became seriously ill and had to take a medical discharge. By 1919 he retired to his home in Falmouth Foreside. His final work in the 1920s was a remodel of a friend’s house in Yarmouth. In his final years Burnham experienced severe mental depression and took his own life in April, 1931.

George Burnham and his partner, E. Leander Higgins, designed both residential and commercial buildings and created several exceptional examples of early 20th century architecture in the Portland area that remain local landmarks today.

Source: Maine Historic Preservation Commission’s Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine.

9 Ways to Learn about Black History in Maine

Architect of the Week: George Burnham