by John Bryant

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

My wife and I concluded a recent trip through Maine during its explosion of fall colors with a short stay in Maine's largest city, Portland. A well spent two days!

Portland was founded in 1633 and is today home to 66,000. Its seaport is one of the busiest in the country and one my father visited as a merchant seaman in 1946! He was certainly anxious to hear what we thought about Portland today. Having already spent more than a week in Maine's Acadia National Park, we decided to limit ourselves to Portland's 'Old Port' and central business and commercial district.

A look at a simple and free tourist map of Portland available at the airport and in hotels quickly indicated an easy walking route for us to see all the sights we wanted. Portland's Old Port and center are compact enough that one can walk - without stopping! - from the town's northwest side to its southeast in about one hour. It turned out our walking day wasn't too long and our feet weren't too tired!

Our walk began on the city's northwest side with a peek into Hadlock Field, home to the Portland Sea Dogs of the Double A baseball Eastern League. Hadlock is a beautiful little example of America's hometown minor league baseball which makes summers so much fun. The Cumberland County Civic Center is adjacent to Hadlock Field and is home to the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League. Lots of fun nights in Portland year round!

Walking further toward the Old Port, we encountered residential street after street lined with trees in their full fall foliage change, deep reds and golds shimmering in the sun. Classic homes along these streets were built in the mid19th Century by Portland's most prominent citizens, clearly a competitive lot as indicated by the 'majesty' of the homes! Many of the homes remain 'single family' but many others were converted to multiapartments. Lots of mailboxes on their porches!

The most impressive example of these antebellum homes is the Victoria Mansion built from 1858-1860. Ironically, it was built as a summer home by a wealthy hotelier from New Orleans and completed the year before the Civil War! Ninety percent of the home's original furnishings remain and visitors have been able to enjoy the home and its furnishings as a museum since 1941.

The impressive Episcopalian Cathedral Church of St. Luke overlooks the Old Port and is the diocesan headquarters for Maine. It's cornerstone was laid in 1867 and its beautiful stained glass Rose Window is 17 feet in diameter and draws viewers

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