Middle Street

Fore Street is a downtown street in Portland, Maine, United States. It runs for around 1 mile (1.6 km), from the Eastern Promenade on Munjoy Hill in the northeast to Pleasant Street in the southwest. It was the original waterfront of Portland's Old Port, prior to the reclamation of land which resulted in today's Commercial Street in the early 20th century.Near its midsection, Fore Street crosses Franklin Street. It splits briefly at Boothby Square, shortly after passing the United States Custom House at 312 Fore Street.

Mariner's Church (also known as the Old Port Tavern and Mariner's Church Banquet Center) is a historic church and commercial building at 368-374 Fore Street in Portland, Maine. Built in 1828, the Greek Revival building historically served as both a church and marketplace. It was for many years the city's largest commercial building, and survived the city's great 1866 fire. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is now home to the Old Port Tavern and other commercial businesses.

Moulton Street is a historic downtown street in Portland, Maine, United States. Situated in the heart of the Old Port, it runs for around 233 feet (71 m), from Fore Street in the northwest to Commercial Street in the southeast. One-way from Fore Street, its surface is cobblestoned, with brick sidewalks. The street is named for William H. Moulton, president of the Cumberland Bank, which stood at the corner of Moulton and Commercial. At the corner of Fore and Moulton is a Portland Freedom Trail marker for the anti-slavery bookstore and printshop run by Daniel Colesworthy. The Mariner's Church, built in 1828 in the Greek Revival style, stands at the northern corner of Fore and Moulton. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. C. H. Robinson, a paper company owned by Charles Henry Robinson (1839–after 1926), formerly occupied the entire block, including 9 Moulton Street, which became the home of Mexicali Blues for 28 years. Old Port Tavern occupied part of the Mariner's Church building between 1973 and 2022. At the head of Moulton Street, 375 Fore Street was the home of Bull Feeney's, which closed in 2023 after 21 years in business. Long Wharf, the home of DiMillo's Floating Restaurant, stands across Commercial Street from Moulton Street. Wharf Street, meanwhile, runs southwest from Moulton Street to Union Street, crossing Dana Street en route. Moulton Street has been noted for its boutique stores.

The State of Maine Armory (also known as Portland Armory and now as Portland Regency Hotel & Spa) is an historic building in Portland, Maine's Old Port District. The State of Maine Armory was designed by prominent local architect Frederick A. Tompson and built in 1895, on land donated to the city ninety years earlier by Joseph Holt Ingraham, for use by the Maine National Guard. Upon its opening, the then-mayor of Portland, James Phinney Baxter, said: "The possession of quarters in a prominent place, where the men would always be under the public eye, would be the means of improving the morale of the force." In 1941, the National Guard abandoned the building, but it was used to house troops during World War II as well as a recreation center. After the war, the structure was used as a warehouse until it was converted into the current hotel in 1987.The main-floor restaurant is named eighteen95, as a nod to the year the building was completed. Its basement-level lounge, meanwhile, is named The Armory. A whiskey bar, Ironside, was added on the lobby level during renovations in 2020 (Portland Armory supplied the USS Constitution, nicknamed Old Ironsides, with ammunition).The 2020 renovation followed one in 2012 that cost around $2.8 million.The hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America.

The Maine Policy Institute (MPI), formerly the Maine Heritage Policy Center, is a conservative free-market think tank located in Portland, Maine. According to its mission statement, MPI is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that conducts detailed and timely research to educate the public, the media, and lawmakers about public policy solutions that advance economic freedom and individual liberty in Maine." The organization has an associated media outlet, The Maine Wire.

Exchange Street is a main commercial thoroughfare in the Old Port of Portland, Maine, United States. It features a number of designer clothing stores, as well as several small, locally owned businesses.Before the 1970s, Exchange Street and the Old Port area had become largely run-down and deserted. Gentrification began in the early 1970s and continues to this day. Historically, Exchange Street was where many printers and newspapers were located. At the top of Exchange Street, strategically located across Congress Street from Portland City Hall, is the Press Herald Building built in 1923 and expanded in 1948 as the headquarters of the Portland Press Herald. In 2015, the renovated building became the Press Hotel.

The Hollow Reed was a vegetarian restaurant in the Old Port district of Portland, Maine that opened on February 7, 1974, and closed in 1981, and is cited for its influence on the city's notable restaurant culture.

The Samuel Butts House (also known as the Samuel Butts House and Store; formerly known as the Mariner's House) is a historic Colonial-style building in Portland, Maine, United States. Located in Boothby Square, on Fore Street, the building was completed in 1792, when Fore Street was at the shoreline. It is the second-oldest extant building on the Portland peninsula, after the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, which pre-dates it by around six years. It is believed a third storey was added well after the building was completed. Samuel Butts (1760–1838) was a tailor who moved to Portland from Boston in 1784.

Long Wharf is a historic wharf in Portland, Maine, on the edge of the Fore River. It stands across Commercial Street, between Market Street and Moulton Street and, on the waterfront side, between Portland Pier (to the north) and Chandler's Wharf (to the south).Portland Lobster Company stands at the foot of the wharf, at Commercial Street, while DiMillo's On the Water is a floating restaurant located on a boat moored at the wharf. Sections of the former Berlin Wall stands on the southern side of the wharf, near today's Gorham Savings Bank.

The Burning of Falmouth (October 18, 1775) was an attack by a fleet of Royal Navy vessels on the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts (site of the modern city of Portland, Maine, and not to be confused with the modern towns of Falmouth, Massachusetts or Falmouth, Maine). The fleet was commanded by Captain Henry Mowat. The attack began with a naval bombardment which included incendiary shot, followed by a landing party meant to complete the town's destruction. The attack was the only major event in what was supposed to be a campaign of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. Among the colonies, news of the attack led to rejection of British authority and the establishment of independent governments. It also led the Second Continental Congress to contest British Naval dominance by forming a Continental Navy. Both Mowat and his superior, Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves, who had ordered Mowat's expedition, suffered professionally as a consequence of the event.

The Falmouth Hotel was a six-story, 240-room hotel in Portland, Maine. It stood on Middle Street, between a now-demolished Plum Street and the extant Union Street, from 1868 to 1963, when it was torn down for being a fire hazard. Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding all stayed at the hotel, while United States Army General William Sherman visited the hotel in 1898. Due to its regular hosting of functions, the hotel became known as the "hotel of a million banquets." Plum Street connected Fore Street and Middle Street between Exchange Street and Union Street. The hotel, which was the largest in Maine at the time of its completion, was built by John Bundy Brown, at a cost of $300,000, as a symbol of Portland's resurgence after its great fire of 1866. Designed by New York's Charles Alexander, the hotel featured a granite facade, a black walnut interior and marble fireplaces. One of its early proprietors was L. Stevens. He was followed by E. A. Gilson, formerly of the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York City, who was in the role after the hotel's first renovation, completed in 1882. Maurice, Baker & Co. pharmacists had a store on the hotel's ground floor in 1888. The ground floor also became the home of the headquarters of the Maine Automobile Association and the Maine Republican Party. After another renovation, it reopened as the New Falmouth Hotel in August 1898, when F. H. Nunns was its proprietor. In 1902, Nunns stated to The Hotel Monthly that the hotel was the first to use a card register. The process had a slow uptake because certain states were required by law to maintain a book of guests' names "for police or other regulation." In the early 20th century, National Liberty Insurance Company of America had on office on the hotel's ground floor. Its agent was Frank R. Kugler (1877–1959). In 1913, the hotel's proprietor was J. J. Pooler, while in 1928 it was Harry Bridges. In 1920, Carleton Glidden (1874–1924) purchased the hotel. He had been the manager of the nearby Congress Square Hotel. By the late 1950s, the hotel's popularity had waned. It closed in early November 1958, and was purchased by the City of Portland in 1963, shortly after which it was demolished. It was replaced by today's Canal Bank Plaza in 1971. The Tichnor Brothers printed a postcard of the hotel around 1938.

The United States Custom House is a historic custom house at 312 Fore Street in downtown Portland, Maine. It was built from 1867–1872 to house offices of the United States Customs Service, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.