Portland Company

Portland Company
IndustryRailroad equipment
FoundedNovember 10, 1846 (178 years ago) (1846-11-10)
Founder
Defunct1978 (1978)
Headquarters
New England
,
United States

The Portland Company was established 10 November 1846 by John A. Poor and Norris Locomotive Works engineer Septimus Norris as a locomotive foundry to build railroad equipment for the adjacent Portland terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad connection between Portland, Maine, and Montreal.[1] The shops opened for business in October, 1847.[2] Its first locomotive, the Augusta, emerged from the shops in July 1848 for delivery to the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth (later part of the Boston and Maine Railroad). Over the next several decades, the company produced in its Fore Street facilities over 600 steam locomotives as well as 160 merchant and naval vessels, railcars, construction equipment, Knox automobiles, and the like. Portland Company built the engines of the civil war side-wheel gunboats Agawam and Pontoosuc.[3] Taking into account its other products, the company could lay claim to being one of the leading medium-to-heavy steel manufacturers in New England. The company ceased production in 1978.

Presently, according to The Portland Company Complex website, the site has become a marine-oriented complex with a small marina, several marine as well as other office tenants and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum.

The Portland Company building is the only intact 19th-century industrial structure on the Portland waterfront,[4] and an area which has become known as Portland Foreside.[5] In February 2016, Portland City Council voted to approve the creation of a historic district which would permit a developer to demolish the former erecting shop in the complex but preserve seven other buildings during the creation of a public plaza.[6] Six months later, the developer asked to move the main building, built in 1895 and formerly known as the Pattern Storehouse, 230 feet (70 m) in order to add a road, parking garage and mixed-use buildings in the complex.[7]

As of 2024, the building is the home of the restaurant Twelve.[8]

  1. ^ S.B. Beckett (1850). The Portland directory and reference book, for 1850-51. Thurston & Co., printer.
  2. ^ Holt, Jeff (1985). The Grand Trunk in New England. Railfare. p. 124. ISBN 0-919130-43-7.
  3. ^ Switzer, November 1964, p.85
  4. ^ "Greater Portland Landmarks - Portland Company". Greater Portland Landmarks. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  5. ^ "Next Phase of Portland, Maine, Mixed-Use Project Gets Green Light : CEG". www.constructionequipmentguide.com. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  6. ^ "City Council approves historic district that allows demolition of Portland Co. building". Press Herald. 2016-02-17. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  7. ^ "Project at Portland Co. site involves moving historic brick building". Press Herald. 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
  8. ^ Tavares, Nathan (2022-07-13). "First Look: This New Portland Restaurant Is a Love Letter to Local Food". Boston Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-21.