India Street Historic District

India Street is a downtown street and neighborhood in Portland, Maine, United States. Situated near the western foot of Munjoy Hill, it runs for around 0.28 miles (0.45 km), from Congress Street in the northwest to Commercial Street and Thames Street in the southeast. It was the city's first street, and the location of the first settlement of European immigrants to the city (then called Falmouth) in the 17th century. There are thirty handmade bricks in the sidewalk commemorating the neighborhood's notable events. In 1680, when Thomas Danforth was Deputy Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the street was known as Broad Street. After the incorporation of the Town of Falmouth in 1718, the street was known as High King Street. The neighborhood has been home to Europeans (1600s), African Americans (1700s), and Irish, Jews, Scots, Russians, Swiss and Portuguese (late 1800s). One of Portland's four stations for the Portland and Forest Avenue Railroad Company was located at the foot of India Street, at its intersection with Commercial Street and Thames Street. Known as the Grand Trunk Station, it was built in 1903, when it was one of the two stations in the city, the other being the Union Station, on Saint John Street, which was demolished in 1961. Grand Trunk Station was demolished five years later, having stood for sixty-three years; its clock tower had been taken down in 1948. Its office building remains intact, at the corner of India Street and Thames Street, in use as a Gorham Savings Bank as of 2024. Clay Cove, the home of early shipyards, stood at the foot of India Street in the 19th century. Atlantic Railroad Wharf formerly stood at the foot of India Street. It was demolished in the early 20th century, when Maine State Pier was constructed. After Portland's great fire of 1866, a fire house was built at 97 India Street. In the early 1950s, the newly created Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Authority highlighted Bayside and East Bayside as target neighborhoods due to its high number of immigrants and the decaying buildings caused by redlining. Residents of these neighborhoods resisted the discriminatory campaign. In 1958, the Authority demolished the Little Italy neighborhood, which spanned from the India Street neighborhood to the East Bayside neighborhood, razing 92 dwellings and 27 small businesses. Another 54 dwelling units were razed for the Bayside Park urban renewal project, an area that now includes Fox Field and Kennedy Park public housing. The first phase of the Kennedy Park was built in 1965. Several streets were truncated in an attempt to limit access to outside traffic. The razing of Franklin Street began in 1967; 130 homes and businesses were demolished and an unknown number of families relocated or were displaced. The India Street Historic District was designated by Portland City Council in 2015 after a unanimous (8–0) vote. As a result, maximum building heights of 50 feet (15 m) were introduced on India Street, as well as parts of Commercial Street, Middle Street and Congress Street. The following year, the Historic Preservation and Planning Board recommended that the boundaries of the India Street Historic District be expanded to include 96 and 100 Federal Street as contributing buildings. Portland City Council passed the motion in June. Etz Chaim Synagogue sits across from the head of India Street, at 267 Congress Street.

The Joseph Barbour House is a historic building in Portland, Maine, United States. Standing at 123–125 Newbury Street, in the India Street Historic District, the building was completed in 1846. Designed in the Federal style, the building survived Portland's fire of 1866 and is now recognized as being architecturally significant. Joseph Barbour fought in the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. He died in 1854, aged 78. He was interred in Portland's Eastern Cemetery.

St. Peter's Catholic Church is a church located on Federal Street in downtown Portland, Maine, United States. Owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, the church was built in 1929, and—being in the city's Italian neighborhood centered on India Street—today hosts Italian cultural events, including the annual Italian Bazaar on the feast day of Saint Rocco. It held its 97th bazaar in 2023. An engraving above the middle of its three doors reads "Tu Es Petrus" (You are Peter). As of 2024, its priest is the Very Revd. Seamus Griesbach.

The North School is an historic former school at 248 Congress Street in Portland, Maine. Built in 1867, it was the first primary school in the state to separate students by grade, and was the largest primary school in the state when built. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was converted into subsidized housing for seniors by the City of Portland.

The Village Cafe was a 550-seat family-owned Italian restaurant in Portland, Maine, United States. It was in business, at 112 Newbury Street, for 71 years (1936–2007) and was one of the few restaurants in the Old Port during the restaurant's existence. It stood across Hancock Street from the Shipyard Brewing Company, in a space now occupied by condominiums — The Village at Ocean Gate — which maintain The Village's name. The restaurant closed at 11:30 PM on weekdays and 12:30 AM on weekends. It was renovated in 1998.After increasing competition from the numerous restaurants opening to take advantage of Portland’s "foodie town" status, the restaurant's owner decided to close the business, rather than spend an estimated $500,000 on work the building needed. It was under contract in 2006 and sold in 2007. There was a plan to downsize the restaurant and include it on the first floor of the condominium, but this did not come to fruition.

Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site. It has more than 4,000 marked graves with an estimated further 3,000 burials in unmarked plots. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.The cemetery is owned by the city of Portland. The volunteer nonprofit group Spirits Alive, founded in 2006, is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the cemetery through conservation and education. Spirits Alive offers daily walking tours from June through mid-October.

Etz Chaim Synagogue is a synagogue in Portland, Maine. Located at 267 Congress Street, it is the only immigrant-era European-style synagogue remaining in Maine. It was founded in 1921 as an English-language synagogue, rather than a traditional Yiddish-language one. Gary S. Berenson presides as Rabbi of the congregation.The building also houses the Maine Jewish Museum.

St. Paul's Church and Rectory is an historic Episcopal church at 279 Congress Street in Portland, Maine. Built in 1868 for a newly established congregation, it is a fine local example of Gothic Revival architecture, designed by English architect George Browne Pelham. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The present pastor is Rev. Samuel L. Logan.

Clay Cove was a cove in Portland, District of Maine, United States. Located between the eastern ends of India Street and Franklin Street, it was the home of early shipyards, such as that of Nathaniel Dyer, Lemuel Dyer and Deacon Samuel Cobb. Fore Street, the former waterfront of the Old Port, was laid out in 1724 to the foot of Exchange Street on the west side of Clay Cove. The cove caused Fore Street to curve away from the Fore River between India Street and Pearl Street, to which Fore Street was not connected until 1765. Fort Loyal, the town's main fortification at the time, occupied a point at the corner of Fore Street and India Street. Atlantic Railroad Wharf overlooked the cove, prior to the wharf's demolition in the early 20th century, when Maine State Pier was constructed. Preble's Wharf (at the foot of India Street) and Tyng's Wharf (foot of what was then Fiddle Lane; replaced by today's Franklin Street) were another two wharves of Clay Cove. An important commercial center during its existence, the cove was filled in when commerce moved west to Commercial Street, which became the waterfront in the early 20th century after land was reclaimed from the Fore River. Portland Marine Railway was based at Clay Cove, on India Street, in 1826. It was sold to make way for the Grand Trunk Railway Station. A creek once flowed up from the cove to Turkey Lane (today's Newbury Street). It was large enough that ships used to sail up it past Middle Street, where an arch was built over the creek.

The Abyssinian Meeting House is a historic church building at 73–75 Newbury Street, in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Built 1828-1831 by free African-Americans, it is Maine's oldest African-American church building, and the third oldest in the nation. Throughout the years, the Abyssinian was a place for worship and revivals, abolition and temperance meetings, speakers and concerts, the Female Benevolent Society, the Portland Union Anti-Slavery Society and negro conventions, and the black school in Portland from the mid-1840s through the mid-1850s. The building is the only Underground Railroad site in Maine recognized by the National Park Service. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Fore Street is a restaurant at 288 Fore Street in the Old Port neighborhood of Portland, Maine, United States. Owned by Dana Street and Sam Hayward, the restaurant opened in 1996. It was named one of Gourmet magazine's top 50 restaurants in the United States in 2002, being placed 16th on the list. Its former chef Hayward was named the top chef in the Northeastern US in 2004 by the James Beard Foundation. In 2002, The Atlantic magazine named Fore Street a "restaurant to build a trip around." In February 2011, Fore Street was nominated by the Beard Foundation for the award of 'Most Outstanding Restaurant'. Dana Street owns three other businesses in the city: Street & Co., Standard Baking Co. and Scales.

159–161 Fore Street (also known as The Stephenson Home) was a residential building in Portland, Maine, United States. The building, which stood at the corner of Fore Street and Hancock Street in the Old Port, was notable as the birthplace of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1807. It was built in 1791, when the city was part of Massachusetts. Longfellow did not grow up in the home. It was originally the home of Captain Samuel Stephenson, uncle of Longfellow via Stephenson's wife, Abigail. Because of the building's connections with the famous writer, the International Longfellow Society attempted to prevent the demolition of the house with a fundraising effort but was ultimately unsuccessful. The structure was demolished in 1955.