Old Port of Portland, Maine

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 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 Woodman Building is a historic commercial block located at 133-141 Middle Street in Portland, Maine. It was designed by architect George M. Harding and built in 1867. It is one of the most elaborate and high-style commercial buildings built in the wake of the city's devastating 1866 fire, and is one of Maine's largest Second Empire buildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1972.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine (in case citations, D. Me.) is the U.S. district court for the state of Maine. The District of Maine was one of the original thirteen district courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, even though Maine was not a separate state from Massachusetts until 1820. The court is headquartered at the Edward T. Gignoux United States Courthouse in Portland, Maine and has a second courthouse in Bangor, Maine. The U.S. attorney for the District of Maine represents the United States in criminal and civil litigation before the court. As of October 8, 2021 the U.S. attorney is Darcie N. McElwee.Appeals from the District of Maine are heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the Federal Circuit).

The Rackleff Building is an historic commercial building at 127-133 Middle Street in the Old Port commercial district of Portland, Maine. Built in 1867 to a design by architect George M. Harding, it is, along with the adjacent Woodman Building and Thompson Block (both also Harding buildings), part of the finest concentration of mid-19th-century commercial architecture in the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The Printers' Exchange Block is a historic commercial building located at 103–107 Exchange Street in the Old Port of Portland, Maine. The building, which was designed in 1866 by Charles Q. Clapp, was built the same year. It wraps around the block that stands at the intersections of Exchange, Federal and Market Streets. Its alternative addresses have been given as 174–178 Federal Street and 114–116 Market Street during its history.

The Maine Lobsterman is a sculpture in Lobsterman Park, Portland, Maine, United States. It was sculpted by Victor Kahill for the 1939 New York World's Fair and served as the centerpiece of the Maine exhibit in the Hall of States. Once it returned to Portland, it was displayed at the Columbia Hotel and the Portland City Hall before being placed at its present location on Temple Street in 1977. In 2021, the Portland Press Herald described it as one of the most iconic landmarks in the city. In July 2022, the animal rights non-profit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to mayor Kate Snyder urging the city replace the sculpture with another sculpture showing a lobster crushing a trap.

Stanley Thomas Pullen Fountain is an historic public water fountain and horse trough in Portland, Maine. It is named for Stanley T. Pullen, a former president of the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals. Pullen died in 1910; the fountain's installation date is not known. The fountain was designed by George Burnham, and is made from granite mined at Jay, Maine.In 2010, the fountain was renovated, and set into a protective curb to protect it from snow plowing equipment. This work was funded by the Portland Public Art Committee and the Margaret E. Burnham Charitable Trust; Margaret Burnham was the daughter of the fountain's designer, George Burnham.The fountain is located on Federal Street, between the Central Fire Station and the Edward T. Gignoux United States Courthouse.

The Cumberland County Courthouse is a courthouse building located in Portland, Maine, United States. Its main façade is on Federal Street, on the eastern side of Lincoln Park, and across Pearl Street from the Edward T. Gignoux United States Courthouse; its entrance is now at the rear of the property, at 205 Newbury Street. Designed by local architect George Burnham, in partnership with Boston architect Guy Lowell, it was completed in 1910 and constructed in granite. The courts were formerly located in Portland City Hall, prior to its burning down in 1908.An addition to the rear of the building, completed in 1991, was dedicated in honor of Vincent L. McKusick, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court between 1977 and 1992.

Middle Street is a downtown street in Portland, Maine, United States. Dating to 1724 (although part of it was a path established by ancient settlers), it runs for around 0.46 miles (0.74 km), from an intersection with Union Street, Spring Street and Temple Street in the southwest, to Hancock Street, at the foot of Munjoy Hill, in the northeast. It formerly originated at what was then known as Market Square (today's Monument Square), but 20th-century redevelopment saw the section between Monument Square and Free Street pedestrianized, and the remaining section—around The Maine Lobsterman monument on Temple Street—erased. Near its midsection, Middle Street crosses Franklin Street. In 1756, when Franklin Street was laid out between Middle Street and Back Street (today's Congress Street), it was known as Fiddle Street. In the early 1950s, the newly created Slum Clearance and Redevelopment Authority Vine-Deer-Chatham project demolished Portland's Little Italy, which was bounded by Franklin Street to the east, Fore Street to the south, Pearl Street to the west and Middle Street to the north. The head of Deer Street was opposite the Thompson Block at 117–125 Middle Street. Middle Street, which is named for its position between Congress Street and Fore Street, passes through Portland's Old Port district.

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.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. Between 1820 and 1839, justices served lifetime appointments with a mandatory retirement age of 70. Starting in 1839, justices have been appointed for seven-year terms, with no limit on the number of terms that they may serve nor a mandatory retirement age.Known as the Law Court when sitting as an appellate court, the Supreme Court's other functions include hearing appeals of sentences longer than one year of incarceration, overseeing admission to the bar and the conduct of its members, and promulgating rules for all the state's courts.The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is one of the few state supreme courts in the United States authorized to issue advisory opinions, which it does upon request by the governor or legislature, as set out in the Maine Constitution.It is also unusual for a state's highest appellate court in that its primary location is not that of the state's capital city, Augusta, partially because the Kennebec County Courthouse did not have a courtroom large enough for the Supreme Court's proceedings. The court did meet there from 1830 until 1970, when it permanently moved to the Cumberland County Courthouse. The renovation of the Kennebec County Courthouse in 2015, which included expansion of the bench in its largest courtroom to permit all seven justices to sit there at the same time, has allowed the court to meet there at least twice a year. It will also continue to meet in Portland, Bangor, and at high schools around the state. The new Judicial Center in Biddeford, scheduled to be completed in early 2023, will also contain a courtroom large enough to permit the court to sit there. The MSJC is also authorized to rule on the fitness of the Governor of Maine to serve in office, which it does upon the Maine Secretary of State certifying to the court that the governor is temporarily unable to carry out the duties of that office. The court must then hold a hearing and, if it agrees that the governor is unfit, declare the office of governor temporarily vacant and transfer its duties to the President of the Maine Senate, who would serve as acting governor. If the Secretary of State later certifies to the Supreme Court that the governor is fit to resume office, the court would then decide whether it agrees.