The Portland daily press., 1882-03-09
M. c. M. A.
ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS OF OLD
PORTLAND.
interesting Lecture by William Goold

Hon. William Goold of Windham, Me-, lee
tured before the Mechanics Association last
evening on the above named subject. Inc
chair was occupied by Lewis B. Smith, Esq,
Vice President of the ssociation and ON in
PRODUCING the speaker of the evening he SAID:
1 think you may not have so soon forgotten
the days when the late William wins, SO well
known and remembered as "Portlands Histo-
rian," contributed to our local press articles
pertaining to the history of men and women
who were prominently identified with the early
growth and prosperity of the town and of the
city of Portland. You cannot have forgotten
with what interest you perused those articles,
how sincerely you regretted his demise, and
how you wondered when that event came to
him at ripe old age, who would be found to
take up the historian s.pen and pursue the
same themes with as much success as ne
achieved. Happily you had not long to wait
for the solving of your doubts-'ere long there
appeared in our city papers over the caballstlc
characters ''W. Co. articles of such historical
interest and truthfulness as to make certain,
that some one endowed with the rare attain
ments of Willis, in this regard, had come
forward to gracefully WELD the pen he had
laid down; one, who by his familiarity with
the men, women and locations of the olden
time, by his wonderful retentive memory and
his patient research was eminently qualified to
wear the mantle of our honored and departed
friend ETherefor it gives me the same special
pleasure to introduce this gentleman to you
this evening, that am sure it will give you to
listen to him-Hon. William Goold, formerly
cur fellow citizen now Portland's historian
and a resident of our neighboring town of
Windham.
Mr.. Goold was received with hearty applause
and spoke for an hour and quarter to large
and attentive audience. Every available seat
was occupied, and many were obliged to stand.
The lecture would make several columns in
full, but we are enabled only to give the fol-
lowing brief abstract:
The two great events in the history of Fal-
mouth Neck after its destruction in 1890, were
Governor Shirley's treaty in 1754 and the bonn
harding by Mowatt in 1775. In fixing the date
of common occurrences old settlers used these
two events for starting points. A building was
said to have been built so many years after
one of these two notable occurrences.
often find in old depositions, these events
used to fix dates Within my time the burn
ing of the town was as far back as most people
went to give the age of a building. So we will
commence there in our investigation relating
to buildings, and those who erected them.
Before the destruction of the town in 1775,
there were two hundred and thirty dwelling
houses on the Neck, now Portland; 130 of these
were destroyed in that fire, leaving one hun
dred standing.
In the fire of 1856 on Temple and Middle
streets five of these time-honored houses dis
appeared, and in the fire of 1866 fourteen more
were wiped out as If by magic-not a timber
remained, but their sites in the waste could be
aScertained by their remaining massive Chin
neys.
In commencing to speak of the buildings
which survived Mowatt's burning, the first
that occurs to me is the Bryce-McLellan house
on York near the foot of High street; the Cox
house, lust above it, corner of High and York
streets, latterly the property of Capt. Richard
Crockett. The remains of the Jos. Mcclellan
house, foot of Preble street, former stood op-
poste Motley block; the Larrabee house, rear
of the engine house, near the corner OF Oak
and Congress streets; the rockingham house.
south corner of Free and Centre streets. The
Marsron tavern, which formerly stood on Mar
ket Square, now stands on the foot of State
street at the entrance to Clay's stable. The
DIR. Deane house, best known as the Chadwick
house, was built in 1865, Smith Cobb, master
builder is the last that remains of those built
previous to the burning Of the town.
After speaking of the above buildings he
proceeded to a consideration of those of more
recent date, and spoke of the early builders OF
Portland, who were Isaac Iilsley, who came
here in 1885; Moses Pearson came here in 1928
noted Motley family, noted builder, came here
previous to 1888; the two Abner Lowells
father and son. The first Lowell was an an
cestor of Abner Lowell, the matchmaker. A
son of Abner Lowell worked for several years
with Brigadier Preble and boarded with his
family. He built and repaired the Generals
buildings and finished the cabins of his vessels.
The buildings erected after the destru ction OF
the town by Mowatt in 1775 were a
couple of two-storied buildings built
II 49, ID nao<1 hrrxy ytc
court and still standing. In 1875, 80
houses were built of which only two now
remain, viz: Jas Fosdick's on York street
and Jas. Mountfort's on the corner OF Mount
fort and Fore streets. In 1876 was erected the
building by the widow of Brigadier Preble on
Commercial street now known as the Dyer
house. In 1892 Capt. Ebenezer Daveis, grand
father of Edward III. Dayeis, a carpenter who
had been a captain in the revolution built
two story house on the north corner OF Free
and Brown streets which was used as tavern
and kept by his widow after bis decease. lie
was gentleman Of the old school and wore
the three cornared hat, red cloak and knee
breecheS.
Two of the energetic carpenters of Portland
were the John Kimballs-father and son.
They were the two first professional architects
of the town. The younger OF the k1mbalis
made the plans for the Old City Hall, which
was erected under his charge. The Kimball's
built the Mcclellan Wingate house, corner OF
High and Spring streets Harrison Brazler
worked SO days continuously on the halfway
of this dwelling. Very little improvement has
been made on it since. An unused flue OF this
building was taken possession of by hive OF
bees which filed it with honey, and when
preparations were made to tahe their horde
some weeks after, honey and bees had depart
ed
The fine piece Of carving over the front door
of John Mussey's house, corner OF High and
Dauforth streets, was cone by John k1mbali
second, whose name is mentioned above. He
also did all the ornamental work for the First
Parish church.
The Old CITY Hall was built the same year
with the First Parish church, and under the
supervision of the same building committee,
who consisted of Joshua Richardson John
Mussey, Albert Newhall When first erected,
the market House." as it was called, had no
portico; the stairs leading to the hall were OF
solid timber. and were inside. 1t was origin
ally intended to be useful building economi-
cally built. In 1888, after two years OF city
government people of architectural taste be-
came dissatisfied with the plain appearance OF
the building 1t answered very well for "the
market house" as it was called, but now as 1t
was to be called the city hall it was hardly
lust the thing The leader of the movement
was Chss @. Clapp. He was made the COM
mittee to draw plan and superlntend the
improvement of the building. The porticoo
brick piers and pilasters on the corners and
the heavy pedlmontS on Jno OuJSiu6 Stairs
were the results of his work.
have already exceeded reasonable limits, as
always do when writing of this old town with
a history, and yet there are the builders works
of three-quarters of century with two or three
exceptions) unmentioned. OF many spacious
buildings neither age nor incident render them
obiecUs of special interest. Many others have
for 70 years been witness to the good taste OF
their owners and architects and have not been
much improved on since. Before the embargo
of 1907, they were the homes of affiuence.
That egergious blunder of shutting up the
ports to foreign commerce, well nigh ruined
New England, while old England, for whose
punishment the ruinous policy was contrived
was not whit the worse. If an enemy had
done it they would have borne il patiently, bu
it was their own government to whom they hat
a right to look to foster and protect their com
merce.
Those who erected the houses alluded to, an6
who were at the time abundantly able to do it
suddenly found that their ships were WORTHLESS
and finally were compelled to leave their pleas
| ant homes-some without place to lay thei
| heads. On the mechanics and laborers, depend
| ent on commerce, which was the principal bus
| mess of the town, the blow fell as heavily as
| did on the merchants. Recollections of those
days yet serve to disturb the very few remain
ing, whose age entities them to close their live
| calmly and pleasantly.
Lecture on Mormonism.
MIR. VIM. Jsrman, the ex-Mormon elder an,
priest from Salt Lake City, Utah, who recent
ly lectured at the Y. M. G. A. rooms in thi