Fort Allen Park: Evolution of a 120-year-old landscape. Authors: Martha Lyons Landscape Architecture LLC & Regina S. Leonard Architecture & Design. Client: Friends of the Eastern Promenade. Date: August 2011

1. Fort Allen Park
Evolution of a 120-year-old public landscape
Martha Lyon Landscape Architecture, LLC
Regina S. Leonard, Landscape Architecture & Design
August 2011

2. …this spot, commanding a magnificent sea view…has proved one of the most
popular resorts or our city during the summer months.”
-Commissioners of Cemeteries and Public Grounds, 1894

3. Beginnings

5. 1796
Portland’s first record of street tree planting was made
A line of poplars was set at the base of Munjoy Hill

6. 1807
The Portland Observatory was constructed atop Munjoy Hill

7. Early Fortification

8. 1812-1815
Portland constructed three
forts on the eastern peninsula:
-Fort Burrows
-Fort Lawrence
and
-Fort Allen

9. Fort Allen stood above Fort Lawrence at Fish Point.
It is the oldest remaining man-made fortification in the City of Portland.

10. Dawn of the Eastern Promenade

11. 1876 Bird’s Eye View of Portland
The first acquisition of land by the City on the Promenade came in 1828
The roadway had been constructed around Mount Joy by 1837
Young elm trees stood along the road edge.

12. Walling’s 1851 map showed the Atlantic & St. Lawrence
Railroad skirting the water’s edge at the base of the
Eastern Promenade.

13. The Victoria Warves were
built at the base of Fort Allen
in the 1850s to accommodate
the Great Eastern steam ship.

14. To celebrate the 1860 arrival of Albert, Prince of
Wales to Portland, the City constructed an
elaborate archway and flight of carpeted wooden
steps at Fort Allen.

15. In the 1870s, land at old Fort Allen belonged to the Grand Trunk Railway,
the Deering Heirs, and F. W. Cummings. The Great Eastern wharves
stood at the foot of the fort.

16. City engineer William Goodwin prepared a revaluation atlas
in 1882, and showed property ownership at the old fort. The
Fessendens were relatives of the Deerings.

17. Birth of Fort Allen Park

18. “steps should be taken to secure the
old Fort Allen lot, so called, on the
Eastern Promenade…”
Commissioners of Parks, Cemeteries & Public Grounds, 1890

19. The City purchased land from
Henry Deering, Harry
Fessenden and Francis
Fessenden in 1890
In 1891, Goodwin prepared the
first site plan for Fort Allen Park.

20. The initial improvements made to the new park included the construction of
a rustic shelter or “band stand,” designed by Albert Winslow Cobb and
John Calvin Stevens. William Burrows built the structure at a cost of
$350.00.

21. Initially, the park contained no circulation routes, only a sloping lawn dotted
with boulders

22. Between 1890 and 1896, the City added several other amenities,
including walkways, a loop drive, two overlook terraces, a flagpole, many
benches, and pole lighting. The original earthen fort berms remained.

23. Cobblestone gutters (added in 1894) and plantings of flowering shrubs
(added in 1897) further ornamented the park.

24. Tall elm trees stood along the Eastern Promenade, providing a strong
outer edge to the park. Plantings within were kept low to preserve the
views.

25. The City began to erect wrought iron fencing at the upper and lower
terraces in 1896. Lower terrace fencing appeared in 1896, and upper
terrace fencing followed in 1900. Plans to connect the two terraces via a
set of broad central steps were in the works as early as 1896.

26. Rodman cannons, used in the Civil War, were acquired for the park in
1900. (Note the houses standing along the park’s northern property line)

27. The Park Expands

28. Portland Mayor James Phinney Baxter, elected in 1892, voiced concern about
the extent of private ownership of land along the harbor side of the Promenade.
He began advocating for the purchase of this land for use by the public.

29. By 1904, Baxter had made a deal with the Grand Trunk Railroad to swap
land on the north side of Fort Allen park for land at the terminus of
Commercial Street.
Around the same time, Baxter engaged the Olmsted Brothers, landscape
architects, to prepare a plan for the entire Eastern Promenade.

30. By the first decades of the 20th century, the elms planted in the mid 1800s
along both sides of the Eastern Prom had reached significant height. Two
rows stood along the west side, while one rimmed the east.

31. In 1911, the “Cummings Lot”
was condemned for park
purposes. The addition of the
small parcel along the southern
edge of the park, brought the
total acreage to 4.55.

32. A “Memorial” Park

33. In 1913-1915, the gun from the battleship USS Maine was brought to Fort
Allen Park and mounted in a concrete base. This effort launched a long
tradition of siting memorials within the park landscape.

34. The Grand Army of the Republic placed a memorial bench in the park
in1926. (Note the small-scale beds of flowers and shrubs throughout.) In
1935, the City added the Jacob Cousins memorial to the park.

35. Modernization & Decline

36. Beginning in the 1930s, the City began to alter the historic design of the
park, widening the roadway and overlook terrace, and replacing the
cobblestone gutter with concrete curb and gutter.

37. In 1962, the mast, bell and navigation shield of the USS Portland was
installed as a memorial at the Park. The Arctic Explorers’ memorial, sited
below the USS Portland, followed, and in 2003 a “temporary” memorial
was created in honor of the 9/11 attacks.

38. In 1968, the Portland House was built on land abutting the south side of
the park. At that time, the park plantings grew in a reverse pattern to what
the City originally intended. Tall evergreens filled the park, while the
outside edge stood barren.

39. A 1984 effort by the City parks department further eroded the historical
integrity of the Fort Allen Park landscape. Crews removed the central and two
perimeter walkways and straightened the loop road, and removed the wrought
iron overlook fencing, replacing it with ornamental steel.

40. Rebirth

41. A 2004 master plan for the Eastern Promenade began to address the
degradation of the historic landscape at Fort Allen Park. It called for the
restoration of the original plantings, and for the introduction of new
plantings to soften the park edges.

42. The plan recommended replacing the contemporary steel fencing with an
historic replica, modified to meet current building codes.

43. In 2006, a group of citizens concerned about the future of Fort Allen Park
and the Eastern Promenade, formed the Friends of the Eastern
Promenade. One of the group’s first projects was the completion of the
Fort Allen Trail, located in the bed of the Grand Trunk Railway.

44. Period of Significance
1890 - 1930

45. Thank You
Greater Portland Landmarks
Maine Historical Society
Portland Public Library – Portland Room
Engineering Archives – City of Portland
Maine Historic Preservation Commission
Olmsted Archives
Jeff Tarling & Joe Dumais
Herb Adams
and
The Friends of the Eastern Promenade