Portland Observatory
Maine State Archives
In 1807, Portland had one of the country’s busiest ports and that created quite a bottleneck at the docks. A former sea captain came up with an idea to bring some efficiency to the chaos: a tower from which he could observe incoming vessels and alert – for a fee – their owners in the harbor.
From the octagonal, 86-foot-tall Portland Observatory he erected on Munjoy Hill, Captain Lemuel Moody used a telescope to watch for and identify incoming ships as far as 30 miles away and then flew specifically designed flags to alert merchants and dock workers of the approaching vessels. In 1876, a telephone was installed in the tower. The observatory stopped operating in 1923 when the use of two-way radios made its communication system obsolete.
After Moody’s great-granddaughter deeded the observatory to the city of Portland, restoration efforts began with the help of the Works Progress Administration, allowing it to be reopened as a sightseeing attraction, and, during World War II, it served as a lookout station. But in the mid-1990s, a wood-burrowing beetle nearly brought the beloved landmark to collapse.
A powderpost beetle infestation caused extensive damage to the structure. The observatory was closed and a massive restoration effort launched. It reopened in 2000. Today, the observatory, a National Historic Landmark, operates as a museum where visitors can climb its 104 stairs and look over Portland Harbor from the only surviving maritime signal tower of its kind in the United States.
