Blue Morning

Looking into the past: 548 Congress St.

Not quite as interesting as my first attempt, but not too shabby either I say. It's been foggy and raining the last few days so I'll try some more once it's nicer out. 

Old Image from: www.mainememory.net/bin/Detail?ln=11163

The store that is in this spot now is The Happy Yogi www.thehappyyogi.com/ 

Cornice

Sea Side

Ocean Gateay, completed last year, is a structure on the eastern waterfront designed to accommodate marine passengers. Portland hosts a number of large cruise ships in the summer and also hosts The Cat Ferry at this location. This particular night, a discussion was being held concerning the future of the Maine State Pier. FMI. 

A blurry shot looking towards the old port. I'll have to get back up here with a tripod someday

And here is a photo from the fall showing the Ocean Gateway facility from a nearby parking garage.

Under an old street light

...And possibly near a garbage can

Note: If you look closely, you can see the graffiti from yesterday's post on this building.

Have You Heard?

The word is love

Deering Street & Fence

Looking east on Deering Street. I feel it looks better in black and white than in color. Note the lack of snow on the ground!

Looking into the past: Monument Square

Inspired by this flickr group, called 'looking into the past,' I set out to try my own this past weekend. Turns out I couldn't get the photo without standing behind the monument, so the second picture gives you the full view for reference. I look forward to trying lots more of these shots soon. 

As seen in the Washington Post

A shot of mine made it into the Washington Post online version today (see below) It may also appear in the Sunday paper's travel section! I was surprised to be contacted about it yesterday and even more surprised to see the article published already today. It's a good article too, go Portland!

PortlandMaineDailyPhoto.Com

So this morning I finally registered http://portlandmainedailyphoto.com via godaddy. I would have liked portlanddailyphoto.com but it is registered to someone in Portland, Oregon for another few years. They have yet to put up any sort of site by the way.

Anyhow, what does this mean to you? Not much (if anything?)!

The site is still at http://portlandmainedaily.blogspot.com, and the domain I registered is just forwarding to the current site. If you have the site bookmarked or are subscribed to the RSS feed, there is no need for action. I hope it will make it slightly easier to find the site and will add a hint of credibility despite being hosted for free on blogger. It also leaves the option of someday adding a hosting plan and possibly migrating to the slightly greener grass of wordpress. In the meantime, tell your friends/family/random strangers that they should check out 'portland maine daily photo dot com!'

Real Working Waterfront

According to the city's website, "Portland is one of the largest fishing ports in New England and is the twentieth largest in the US." It is also "located closer to Europe than any other transatlantic port in the US." I know that second fact is still true, but I wonder if the first one is still accurate. It looks like this 'city facts' section of their website doesn't get updated too often. Perhaps Portland has moved up or down its standing as a fishing port. Anyone know?

Spring is here again

Tip of the hat to Avery for letting it be known that spring has arrived in the old port. I had to get down there and see it for my own eyes.

I also consider this to be a good sign (pun intended) that spring is on the way. 

Fore

I don't think I have any photos on this blog of Fore Street. Here you go:

More!

A few more shots relating to Wednesday's post (scroll down a bit or click here).

The tower in the left says 'CMP' and sits atop one of their buildings/maintenance lots on Canco Road.


USM can be seen peeking out of the forest in this view. You can see my apartment from here.
And this angle shows some more USM, the West End and Parkside neighborhoods, and some of Maine Medical Center on the far right.

Painting

Painting Congress Square, in Congress Square. Note how the colors of the painting kind of match the colors of the little pedestrian in the background. This guy might be out there again this weekend so I'll be sure to get another shot of his progress.

Edit: The painter here is city councilor David Marshall. Thanks Elliott for pointing me to his art website.

Rocky Hill Portland

Per Christian's reply to this post last week, I finally made it out to Rocky Hill, an old rock quarry by Morrill's Corner, for some unique skyline views. I actually read Christian's post on the Vigorous North about this little-known area back in late 2007 and have been meaning to explore it for quite a while. This past weekend was a good opportunity!

Feel free to click any of these to get a larger view, it's worth it on the skyline shots.





















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http://portlandmainedaily.blogspot.com/2009/03/rocky-hill-portland.html

Upper Preble Street

Taken from the same spot as this photo, except this one is looking south. The Maine Bank and Trust Building and the Time and Temperature Building in the middle of the photo are two of my favorite structures in the city. The gray rooftop in the foreground is part of the 'old' public market building which was purchased by a private company a few months ago but so far has yet to move into the spot. The current public market house is in a brick building in Monument Square which can kind of be seen between base of the two buildings mentioned earlier.

Touch of Grey

The Eastland Park Hotel, Congress Square, and beyond as seen from the top of the Holiday Inn by the Bay. I strongly recommend wandering around the Holiday Inn to get some photographs and enjoying their complimentary coffee.

Roof Top

This picture was taken last week. I think it is time to take the Christmas tree down.

Custom House Wharf

Custom House Wharf, sitting directly above the ocean, is home to many established business such as Harbor Fish Market, Comedy Connection, and Sea bags.

Here is an aerial view:

Exchange Street

Taken yesterday in the fog on upper Exchange Street.

Stat Counting

Based on statistics from statcounter.com, of the last 500 visitors who found this blog in a search engine the following terms were used (I only included search terms with more than 1 'hit') :

Also of note is that most of my search engine visitors use Google. I was not aware that people still used AOL but I'm glad one person used it to find my blog.

No fun beyond this point

Spotted within the Casco Bay ferry terminal.

Low Tide

Little help? :-P

Have it your way - Reader requests

Would you like to see a photo of somewhere or something specific in Portland?

There are lots of areas of the city that I have yet to take photographs of so I would be interested to hear any suggestions that you may have.

Leave your request by commenting on this post and I will likely use all of your recommendations!

Abyssinian Meeting House

From Wikipedia...

The Abyssinian Meeting House is an historic house built by free African-Americans in Portland, Maine at 73–75 Newbury St. Established in 1828, the Meeting House was the cultural center for African-Americans in southern Maine from its inception until foreclosure in 1917. The house was redeveloped into tenement apartments in 1924 before being seized by the City of Portland in 1991. After sitting vacant for 6 years, the Meeting House was bought for historic preservation by the Committee to Restore the Abyssinian. When established, it was just the third African American Meeting House in the United States after Boston and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is one the few houses remaining following the1866 Great Fire of Portland, Maine.

Check out the Abyssinian restoration project's website here for some great pictures of the progress.

Old and New

Taken from the same spot as yesterday's photo, looking towards the West End.

60!

Spring is on the way. It likely won't hit 60 again for some time but it was nice to get a preview of warmer weather.

Museum Attendance Record

As reported in various places, the museum of art recently broke attendance records as a result of their current exhibit, "Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography."

From this blog at the Press Herald website:

During the First Friday Art Walk on Feb. 6, almost 3,500 attended the
exhibition. "We just don't get density like that in our public buildings in
Maine. It's like being in Heathrow Airport in London or Grand Central terminal
in New York. It's very unusual, and a different kind of feel," Denenberg said.

According to wikipedia, Grand Central has over 500,000 visitors a day which is almost half the population of Maine. So maybe it's not quite as crowded, but this is definately great news for the museum! The Rock & Roll exhibit runs until March 22nd. Perhaps museum attendneces historially increases during bad economies similar to how more people go to the movie theater?

Also, check out the Museum of Art Blog.

Post Office

Some sort of post office truck convention?! Taken over a fence at the post office on Forest Ave/Portland Street.

Name Game

Portland's newly announced Developmental League (D-league) basketball team is looking for feedback on a new name. See here for details on voting.

The choices are:

Maine Beacons
Maine Crushers
Maine Claws
Maine Destroyers
Maine Red Claws
Maine Swarm
Maine Traps

The site lists a brief description of each name, from the slightly lame:

Maine Destroyers- The Destroyers name honors the 400 years of shipbuilding in
Maine. It is a vibrant part of Maine’s culture and history, and also
represents our teams desire to destroy the competition.

To the pretty interesting:

Maine Red Claws- The Red Claws name celebrates the lobster industry in
Maine. Maine is the largest producer of lobsters in the United
States. The “Red” is in tribute to Boston Celtics Legend Arnold "Red"
Auerbach.

Go Red Claws!

Under the Boardwalk

Underneath the bridge between South Portland and Regular Portland. This park offers some nice scenic vistas and tables with chess patterns on top of them. For those so inclined, they may also launch a small boat here or do some salt water fishing. This area is known as Thomas Knight Park, and is in the Knightville neighborhood. A few guidelines for park usage can be found here.

My favorite rule on the website which is also posted on a bulletin board int he park:

"General rule of thumb: If you are thinking about doing something your mother would not let you do, don’t do it here."

Also:

"This scenic 1.5 acre park is located at the site where the old " Million Dollar Bridge" used to enter South Portland. It offers scenic views of the Portland Peninsula and salt water fishing from the lower section of the park."

Before and After #8 - The Library

Before and After...future edition!

2009

Later in 2009?

Renovations to the Portland Public Library are slated to begin later this month, and if it ends up looking anything like the rendering above, it will look great. Located in Monument Square, the new look will help add a little extra life to this busy pedestrian area year round. I look forward to the addition of a cafe in the new section and the video board that can be used to promote local events and even be used for special events like rallies in monument square.

Read Christian's take on the renovations at Rights of Way.

And while you are here, check out these other before and afters:

Before and After #1 - Custom House
Before and After #2 - Victoria Mansion
Before and After #4 - Eastland Park Hotel
Before and After #6 - Longfellow Square

Do you have any old pictures of Portland saved on your computer? I find most of mine on the Maine Memory Network site. If you have any ideas for future installments, let me (coreytempleton @ gmail.com) know and I will see what I can do!

Local Review #1 - TV on the Web

Welcome to the first little Local Review' column. Today I will be taking a look at the online presence of a few local television stations. If I feel like it, I may do one of these every now and then based on different subjects relating to Portland. Also, feel free to give me some ideas of things to review!

Along with newspapers, television stations are also seeing a decline in revenue due to decreased advertising income. Almost all television stations have a strong presence on the Internet these days, with hopes of putting a few extra bucks into their wallets. Let's take a look at Portland's 'big 3' news team websites.

The contenders (in order by station number):


WCSH Channel 6




WCSH did a fancy refresh of their website several months ago, and as you see they are going for the 'myspacey' approach. The viewer is encouraged to sign up and create a profile, comment on articles and blogs, comment in forums, upload photos, and 'keep up with your friends.' It is a pretty ambitious offering. With all the buttons and such, it really slows the site down. Also, the teeth whitening and wrinkle cream ads are too big for my taste. Lots of news sites benefit from a touch of 'social networking,' but I think they should cut it back just a tad and focus on the news. Also, I find the shade of their background color to be subpar.


WMTW Channel 8 -

I find the WMTW website to be pretty plain-jane, similar to their broadcasts, but I think it works. They have the most national news and fewest amount of advertisements on the home page. I like how they don't have an annoying background color also. They lose big points for their weather page. It is way too busy and is kind of scary. The picture of Matt Zidle is scary, too.

WGME Chanel 13 -





WGME has a good mix of news, weather, and shameless self promotion on their main page. I visit this one most often, as it loads quickly and I like their weather page. This channel excels in sensationalism, which keeps most of their content interesting. They are constantly updating the top portion of the home page with some 'breaking story.' There isn't a ton of sensational news in Maine, so I applaud the amount of effort it must take to write their stories. While they are located in suburban Portland (WGME and WCSH6 are right downtown), they do a good job at having a kinda 'big city' vibe.



Here is my ranking of these 3, best to worst:



1. WGME - Easy on the eyes, good content.

2. WMTW - The little train that could, except for the weather page

3. WCSH6 - I actually watch them on TV more than the other 2, but I strongly dislike the site.