Forest Street late 1800's
Then....
This history photo comes from an old post card file found on-line by super history sleuth Rodney Laughton. Rodney usually searches for anything Higgins Beach, but it must have been a very rainy day for him to deviate from that standard and search for old photos of Portland. In the midst of all the clutter, he finds this overview photo of the Forest Street area taken in the 1800's from somewhere between Houghton Street and Ocean Avenue (Houghton Street did not exist at the time as the early streets went East-West). The postcard owner likely had no idea of what he had or where it represented, so he just looked at the front of the card, saw Portland Maine as the postmark and made assumptions!
The rambling cottage on the right was purchased by Rodney and then torn down to make room for a new family home. That cottage, 13 Houghton Street, was sold to my son just a few years ago. The multi-pane window that can be seen in the photo is comfortably resting on an inside wall of the garage.
The tall cottage in the middle of the other three in the photo is the Sea Witch on Forest Street. To the left of the Sea Witch is a cottage which has been torn down and totally rebuilt by the Blaise's. The same fate became of the gambrel to the right which was owned by the Mercier family. Two of the Mercier daughters recently rebuilt that cottage as well.
Now....
Maybe with a drone we could make this happen!!
|