Which Town Center Do You Mean?
by Doris Sherrow, June
1999
When it came time to erect a monument
for our brave boys who fought in the Civil War, that monument was, of
course, erected in the center of town. And where was that center?
Directly opposite the Congregational Church on the edge of Gildersleeve!
Portland was a shipbuilding town, and had been since the
mid-1700s. The town "center," identified as Chatham
Village on an 1826 map, drawn by students at the American
Literary, Scientific and Military Academy (later Wesleyan
University), was the Gildersleeve section. It was not called
Gildersleeve back then, because Sylvester Gildersleeve was only
31 years old, little more than a third of the way into his long,
productive life.
Even at that time, however, the area we today refer to as
the "center" of town (at the opposite end of Main Street,
leading to the bridge) must have had special significance. The first
cemetery was put there, along Commerce Street. Quarrying had been
pursued in this area since the 1600s. Just as the Gildersleeve area
filled with beautiful houses built by the Gildersleeves or their
sons-in-law, today’s center became the location for the Hall family
houses.
Joel Hall began buying land in the quarry area in
the 1790s, and worked the quarries more actively than before. He
up-scaled the quarry operation according to 19th century
industrial principles, creating a larger industry – more work, more
workers, more production. This thriving industry provided much of the
development of lower Main Street.
It is unclear where Joel Hall lived, but his children’s
houses were once plentiful along lower Main Street. The set of postcards
recently published by P.R.I.D.E. shows a twin-chimney colonial
house at the corner of Main and Marlborough streets (where Brooks
Pharmacy is now). This was the home of Joseph Hall, Joel’s
second son. It was probably built in the late 1700s, or early 1800s, and
looked much like the house at 242 Main Street.
Across Marlborough Street, on the same side of Main, built
around 1827, was Joseph’s brother Jesse’s house. It was a
ridge-to-street Federal style, with a fanlight in the gable. There were
two more, very similar, built by 1830 to the south of this one. The
first was built for Charles Williams, who worked with the
quarries, and the second for Almyra Hall Edwards, Joseph’s and
Jesse’s niece. These three Federal-style buildings would have
presented a lovely streetscape. Photographs in the WPA files at the
State Library show the William’s and Edwards’ houses (Jesse Hall’s
is only described), with elegant woodwork, set on woodsy lots.
Across the street from Almyra Hall Edwards was her aunt,
Joel’s daughter Emily, and her husband Henry Churchill.
This house stood on the southwest corner of Main and Silver streets. It,
too, was a ridge-to-street, two-story Federal with a decorative entry
porch over the doorway. In 1850, Charles H. Sage, who had married
Jesse Hall’s daughter, Eliza, built the Greek Revival house
which we know at the Coffee Pot. The next building up the street
would have been yet another ridge-to-street Federal, at 224 Main. This
house belonged to John and Hannah Hall Payne. He was a
druggist, and she the daughter of Joel Hall, the quarry owner. The
daughters of Henry and Emily Hall Churchill had the house at 226 built
for them in 1877.
The house at 242 Main was built by Nathan Gillum, a
fellow quarry owner, in 1795. Its similarity to Joseph Hall’s house,
mentioned above, suggests that Joseph’s house may have originally been
built for his father Joel. Further research is necessary. 246 Main
Street was also a Hall house, being the property of Joel Hall Jr.,
and then his son, Nathaniel B. Hall.
251 Main Street also reflects the ridge-to-street Federal
style (it still has a fanlight over the entry door), and while it was
built by a shipbuilder named George Bush, it was bought by Joel
Hall’s son Samuel when he came back from living "out west"
in upstate New York. Samuel Hall lived out his life here, and
built the store which long-time residents knew as "Mrs. Keane’s
Dancing School." 245 Main Street (Liberty Bank) was built by
Samuel’s son, Alfred, in 1839. 231 Main Street (Portland
Funeral Home) was built by Joseph Hall’s son Frederick in 1845.
The bungalow in the rear of 233 Main was built by Hall nieces. Between
1830 and 1880, there would have been Halls and their cousins all over
the present day center of town.
The Halls must have been instrumental in shifting the town
"center" from Gildersleeve to lower Main Street. In 1830, the
Episcopal Church moved from the corner of Bartlett and High streets to
its present Main Street location. This branch of the Halls were
Episcopalian, and they surely provided some of the impetus for that
move. The definitive moment came in the 1890s, when Selectmen voted to
acquire the brownstone house of the late Jonathan Fuller at 263
Main Street for a town hall. This switched the seat of government from
the old Episcopal Church on the corner of Bartlett and High streets to
the present downtown area.
What might once have become known as Hall’s Corner
became the recognized center of Portland.