Looking into the Past: Custom House

Today's installment of this series is of the lovely Custom House on Commercial Street. The earlier photo, which appears to be from the 1960's or 70's perhaps, guessing from the automobiles, comes from the excellent Portland Maine Encyclopedia facebook group. Check out some of my other looking into the past photos in this flickr set or here on this blog. For further inspiration, check out this official looking into the past flickr group, where I picked up the idea.

Bits & Pieces

Center Street Smiley Face

The Real Congress  Street

Parkside Garage

Top 5: Places to Photograph the Portland Skyline

Here are my picks for the top 5 places from which to photograph the Portland, Maine skyline, using photos that I've taken over the years. Portland's skyline is not quite as impressive as New York's or  San Francisco's, but it gets the job done. One's initial impression of the city can depend on which angle the city is viewed. To the list, in no real particular order:

1. From the Casco Bay Bridge. If I was introducing someone to Portland for the  first time, the  view  from the bridge would be a good first impression, especially by foot or bicycle.

2. Undisclosed location. This view from the north and west of the peninsula is pretty unique. Given the terrain of the area, there aren't a lot of places where you can get a view of the city from this far away. View the below photo much larger on my flickr.

3. University of Southern Maine Campus. Just across I-295, the USM campus has  some good views from the parking garage, pictured below, or from some of the top floors of the academic buildings. The below photo is from 2006, I should try to take the photo again sometime.

4. Intermed Building, Bayside. Although taking a photo from this building means that the skyline view  doesn't include the Intermed building (not a huge loss though), it affords quite a view over Bayside.

5. Standpipe Park and/or North Street, Munjoy Hill. This is one of my favorite places to view the city's skyline. Here's an example:

I would do 5 more but I have run out of time. Maybe that will be a post next week, stay tuned!

Munjoy Hill Scenes

The Observatory, which I aim to take pictures from sometime this summer:

Cat nap:

This is a area, and no pets are allowed:

Looks like a rainy morning out there. Here are some photos from another recent rainy morning.

Corner of Congress and State Street:

The Ohno! Cafe at 87 Brackett Street in the West End:

Food Cart

I like stumbling upon the occasional non-hot dog oriented food cart.This is the Hella Good Tacos cart in Monument Square:

To the left of the above picture:

Sitting in an English Garden

Behind City Hall

Flowers on Park Street

Upon Reflection

Window on the back of 660 Congress Street:

Turned around:

Western Prom Sunset

Free Street Aerial

From the front deck of the Dogfish Bar & Grille on Free Street:

Forest City

A view from Baxter Boulevard / Back Cove: 

Lobster boat passing under Tukey's Bridge:

Renovations

The ground floor of the Schwartz Building, at Congress Square, is pictured below. The building was featured in a recent Forecaster article concerning the progress of renovations and what the hold-up is.

Looking to the left of the above photo down Congress Street: