Portland (Then and Now) (Then & Now)
Title: Interview with author John Moon on the Ken & Mike showPublisher: WGAN RadioDate: 8/27/09WGAN Radio's Ken and Mike speak with author of "Portland - Then and Now", John Moon.Listen Online!http://560wgan.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId;=3981966Title: Past PresentAuthor: Ray RouthierPublisher: Portland Press HeraldDate: 9/6/09John Moon's first career was about the future. He worked in the aerospace industry for about 25 years.But his second career has been about the past. He recently moved back to the Portland area, where he grew up, and started pursuing more creative interests. He does a lot of writing about and researching of local Portland history. He also takes photographs and paints.Moon, 56, combined some of his creative interests to publish his first book, "Then & Now: Portland" (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99). For the book, Moon found historic photographs of areas of Portland, then tried to take a contemporary photograph from the same vantage point.The result were "then and now" photo comparisons of some 80 spots around Portland, including many from Munjoy Hill, downtown, the Old Port and the waterfront.Q: Why did you do this book?A: I had spent 25 years in the aerospace industry, in corporate finance. Now I'm semi-retired, doing some consulting, and I wanted to do more creative things – photography, painting, searching out local history. I had been reading another Arcadia book, about the history of the Rines family (which owned Maine TV and radio stations), and saw some beautiful old pictures of Portland. I thought, "Why don't I go out and take some pictures of the same spots in these old pictures, and see what's there now?"So I simply began driving around, taking pictures of spots around Portland, and that led to the book.Q: Where did you get the old pictures? How did you select the places for this project?A: I started at the Maine Historical Society (in Portland), where I bought some. I found a lot at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission (in Augusta), and they provided pictures for free as long as I gave them credit.I had probably collected about 200 images, and could only use about 80 for the book. In fact, I have an entire second set of images I can use for a second book.I tried to divide the book up by sections of town, and just picked pictures of places in those sections I found most interesting.I picked the Abyssinian Church in the East End because of its history (as a center of the local African-American community). I did areas of the Eastern Promenade, lots of areas downtown. Most of the old pictures are from more than 100 years ago, because I wanted to show what Portland looked like in what was probably its heyday, around 1880.And I threw in some oddball ones, like the original site of Amato's (a Portland-based sandwich chain) and the site of the Miss Portland Diner.Q: Was it difficult for you to shoot the exact spots shown in the old photos?A: Some were difficult to get. One that sticks out was a painting of Munjoy Hill (in 1829) by Charles Codman. The only vantage point I could find to get the same view was from (a former school) on North Street. I finally got someone to let me in, but it was cloudy that day, so I had to shoot it twice.Another one was the site of the old Union Station (now a shopping plaza on St. John Street). I had to go to the fourth story of the Inn at St. John. I tried about 10 times to get in there, and finally on a Sunday, somebody let me up into one of the rooms.It took a solid three months, working every day, for me to get all the pictures I needed.Q: Were there examples of areas that looked almost exactly the same as they did in the old picture? Some that looked totally different?A: There's a great old picture of lower Free Street (taken around 1890), and when you look at the new picture I took, you see it's all there, the whole block.Union Station is one place that's now gone, and where Key Bank Plaza is now, that was the Falmouth Hotel.Q: What sort of conclusions did you draw from the work you did on this book?A: A couple things stick out. One is the way the automobile radically changed the way we live. You look at the old pictures, you see trolley cars in the streets.And then there are some things that have not changed one iota. The Eastland Hotel, for instance, looks just about identical. You have to credit destroying Union Station with the beginning of a preservation movement in Portland, which led to a lot of things being saved.What I hope people take away from the book is a greater appreciation for our heritage. Who we are as a people has a lot to do with who we were, how we lived 100 years ago.