I’ll be upfront right here, we didn’t see much of Portland. We decided to forego an excursion here, as we have been busy enough on this cruise already. We spent the bulk of our time shopping along Commercial Street and around the Old Port area.
One specific spot I did want to visit was Victoria Mansion, a historic house in downtown Portland.
The house was completed in 1860 as a summer home for hotelier Ruggles Sylvester Morse. The building is recognized as one of the finest, least-altered examples of an Italianate brick home in the United States. The woodwork in the front door is your first clue of the historic opulence that awaits inside.
This is the grand dining room. All of the plates and glassware were custom made for the owner. Each of the plates had the monogrammed M in the center. Morse was ultra wealthy, and he wanted everybody to know it. It was amazing that they still had the original settings after all of these years!
The woodwork in the dining room is amazing. The paintwork is even more amazing! This entire ceiling is made of plaster, and has simply been painted to look like wood. That’s some serious painting skills!
The building changed hands a few times, and was mostly unaltered during those times. In the late 1930’s an oil company wanted to purchase the home and demolish it to build a gas station on the site. Fortunately it was purchased by a local, William Holmes, with the intent to turn it into a museum. It opened in 1941 as Victoria Mansion, in honor of Queen Victoria.
In August 1944, William Holmes wrote a letter to King George asking for a souvenir of Queen Victoria’s for the museum. The King sent back this 1869 painting from the Buckingham Palace collection.
The return letter from Buckingham Palace is adjacent to the painting. Very cool little piece of history!
The central grand staircase must have been quite the sight for those entering the front foyer. Nearly everything in this house is original. You can see some scaffolding on the left where they are touching up the paint on the wall.
Love the stained glass windows.
Even the ceiling/roof is filled with stained glass!
The rear of the house is where they kept the horses, evidenced by the rusty steel rings in the wall.
The horses are long gone, but I was still able to make a friend. If you are into history, architecture and beautiful homes, definitely check this place out!
Quick funny story. We got off the ship late, and Tony texted me to let me know their planned itinerary (they always get up WAY early). He texted “Heading to Holy Donut now”. “The one on commercial”. I totally thought there must have been a donut shop featured on a TV commercial, and Tony saw it based on the exhaustive time he spends watching TV (sarcasm…you’d be shocked with what he hasn’t seen). I responded “must have missed that commercial”. Little did I know he meant Commercial Street! Ha!
Sorry for so little about Portland. We generally hate big cities, so there’s that. Up next, our cruise ends, and we head to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park! Lots of beautiful shit coming up!
You will love Acadia National Park! Make sure you do the hike up the Bubbles at Jordan Pond, and stop for tea and popovers after your hike next to the pond.
Mark, thanks for the comment. As usual, I’m a little behind in my blog. I’m about to start working on Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. It was indeed an awesome spot to visit!