PORTLAND

From Agepedia

PORTLAND ; a posttown, port of entry and commercial metropolis of the state of Maine. It stands on a peninsula in Casco bay, and has a beautiful and healthy situation, and one of the best harbors in America; northnortheast from Boston, 110 miles; from Portsmouth, 54; from Washington, 542; latitude of Observatory hill, 43° 39' N.; Ion. 70° 2(y 30" W., population, in 1820,8581; in 1830,12,601. The town is well laid out, and is builtin a very convenient and elegant style. There are very few towns in America which are so pleasant to the eye of the traveller. It contains fifteen meetinghouses, including two for Christians (q. v.), one for Roman Catholics, one for Africans and one for mariners; also a customhouse, a theatre, an atheneum containing a library of 3000 volumes, and six banks, including the branch bank of the U. States. The harbor is very safe and capacious, and is never frozen, except for a few days in the coldest winters. On a head land on cape Elizabeth, near the entrance of the harbor, there is a stone lighthouse, seventy feet high, erected in 1790. The town is defended by forts Preble and Scarnmel, on opposite sides of the ship channel, one mile and a half from the lighthouse. The islands around the harbor are very numerous and beautiful, and protect it against the violence of storms. The shipping belonging to this port, in 1821, amounted to 33,619 tons; and on the 30th of Sept., 1831, it amounted to 42,992 tons, and consisted of 25 ships, 98 brigs, 208 schooners, 33 sloops, 3 steamboats, and 31 vessels under 20 tons. The principal articles of export are lumber and fish. Much attention is paid to education. The town supports one English high school for boys; two monitorial schools for boys, and two for girls; six primary schools, and one for colored children. One academy, two high schools for females, and several other schools, are supported at private expense. Portland was formerly a part of Falmouth, and, in 1775, the principal part of the town was burned by the British. It was incorporated by its present name in 1786.