A high-angle aerial view of an urban intersection lined with multi-story brick and masonry buildings. Crosswalk lines mark the street below, and the surrounding cityscape extends into the background with various architectural styles, including modern high-rises and a construction crane under a pale sky.

Portland's Old Port

Photo: Maine Office of Tourism

Across the street from upscale hotels, fine dining restaurants, and an assortment of retail shops, fishermen hose off the decks of their boats and stack plastic totes filled with lobster and fish onto docks and into waiting trucks. It’s a typical day in Portland’s Old Port, where the working waterfront coexists with the city’s reputation of being a world-class tourist and foodie destination.

Spanning just a few blocks between Portland Harbor and Congress Street, the Old Port is a dense neighborhood of housing, working waterfront, and commercial, entertainment, and service businesses connected by a network of brick sidewalks. Its cheek-by-jowl brick and granite buildings were part of the rebuilding effort following the Great Fire of 1866, which destroyed most of Portland’s downtown and waterfront areas.

Today, the Old Port’s narrow streets are thronged with tourists in the summer, but as the district’s shipping dominance waned after World War II, businesses left or closed and its wharves deteriorated.

Preservation efforts and new investment beginning in the 1970s turned the decline around. Wharves were rebuilt, warehouses repurposed into retail and living spaces, and by the early 2000s, the city was getting national attention as a best place to visit and eat.

All that attention has brought some downsides around parking and affordability, in particular. And there’s the looming issue of rising sea levels. Part of the Old Port is built on filled in land between the water and Fore Street. Several feet of water inundating the streets, piers, and businesses in those areas is increasingly common during high tides and extreme weather events.

But as with past challenges, the Old Port continues to adapt. City leaders, preservationists, and the fishing and business communities are exploring ways to protect the working harbor and preserve the historic district so that residents and visitors alike can continue to trip on the Old Port’s granite block pavers as they make their way to the harbor to catch the mailboat run and watch fishermen unload the day’s catch.

Greater Portland Landmarks: Old Port

A vintage black and white photograph looking down a narrow harbor waterway between wooden piers in Portland, Maine. A long wooden dock supported by numerous pilings extends along the left side, stacked with large, hexagonal wooden frames used for drying fishermen's nets next to a row of multistory wooden waterfront buildings. A small boat rests in the foreground, and a larger masted vessel is moored in the distance. — Drying fishermen's nets 1900-1920. Photo: Library of Congress.

A vintage black and white photograph of a city street showing the Portland Post Office building. The grand, columned classical building sits at the end of a block, with several mid-20th-century cars and trucks parked along the curb in the foreground, including a station wagon prominently featured in the lower center. — Former US Post Office in 1964 where Post Office Park is now. Photo: Library of Congress.

A color, eye-level photograph of the grand stone exterior of the U.S. Custom House in Portland, Maine. The three-story classical building features rows of arched windows, decorative columns, a prominent square tower with a rounded cupola on the left corner, and two American flags flying from the front facade next to a street intersection. — United States Custom House. Photo: Library of Congress.

A black and white street scene photograph of Middle Street in Portland, Maine, from 1904. The cobblestone street features embedded trolley tracks and horse-drawn carriages, lined on both sides by grand multistory brick commercial buildings with storefront awnings. Pedestrians walk along the sidewalks under a dense network of overhead telephone wires. — Middle Street c. 1904. Photo: Library of Congress.

A wide panoramic black and white photograph looking out over a calm Portland harbor around 1910. Numerous multi-masted sailing ships and cargo schooners are anchored across the still water, viewed from an elevated vantage point behind a long iron fence lined with park benches in the foreground. — Portland harbor c. 1910. Photo: Library of Congress.

A black and white architectural photograph of the historic Mariners Church building in Portland, Maine, captured from an angled street view. The multi-story building features a prominent stone facade with a large triangular pediment and arched windows on its front, contrasting with a brick side wall displaying a painted sign for the "C.H. Robinson Co." — Mariners' Church on Fore Street from HABS Survey. Photo: Library of Congress.

A historic black and white photograph showing a wide, muddy unpaved street in Portland, Maine. On the left stands a large building featuring a massive, prominent rounded dome roof and a columned facade, while the opposite side of the street is lined with historic storefronts, with a distant church steeple visible at the end of the road. — Daguerreotype from 1846 showing the Portland Merchants' Exchange, between Exchange and Market Streets. Photo: Library of Congress.

A black and white photograph of weathered, dark wooden and corrugated metal warehouse buildings sitting along a pier at Union Wharf in Portland, Maine. The structures show signs of age, with stacks of wooden materials piled on the dock in the foreground, overlooking the calm water where a small skiff floats. — Union Wharf in 1962. Photo: Library of Congress.

A dusk photograph of a ferry terminal pier over calm water, its roofline illuminated with warm lights that reflect on the glassy surface. A white and yellow passenger ferry is moored at the dock under a clear twilight sky dominated by a bright, glowing full moon. — Portland's working waterfront. Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

A ground-level view of an outdoor dining area along a historic cobblestone street. Black patio umbrellas and matching fencing enclose seating areas outside brick buildings, decorated with hanging flower baskets under a clear blue sky. A street sign reading "Wharf St" is visible on the right. — View of Wharf Street. Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

A daytime view looking down a narrow harbor slip flanked by buildings. On the left, stacks of colorful lobster traps sit on a floating dock next to weathered wooden structures, while the right side features a modern brick building reflecting in the still blue water where several boats are moored. — Stacks of lobster traps along a wharf. Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

An elevated aerial view looking down at a busy marina filled with numerous yachts, sailboats, and a large passenger ferry docked in neat rows. The calm harbor water reflects the surrounding city lights and parking lots under a soft twilight sky. — Marina view of Portland's waterfront. Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

An aerial, golden hour view of a city waterfront. A white fishing boat cuts through the calm water in the foreground, leaving a light wake, as it heads out past wooden piers lined with multi-story buildings toward a sprawling cityscape under a soft sunset sky. — Portland's working waterfront. Photo: Maine Office of Tourism.

« Back to All Atlas Entries