House Island is a

private island A private island is a disconnected body of land wholly owned by a private citizen or corporation. Although this exclusivity gives the owner substantial control over the property, private islands remain under the jurisdiction of national and some ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Harbor in

Casco Bay Casco Bay is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine on the southern coast of Maine, New England, United States. Its easternmost approach is Cape Small and its westernmost approach is Two Lights in Cape Elizabeth. The city of Portland sits along its south ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, United States. It is part of the City of

. The island is accessible only by boat. Public access is prohibited, except for an on-request tour sanctioned by the island's owners. House Island includes three buildings on the east side and Fort Scammell on the west side. The buildings are used as vacation rentals and other summer residences. The island's name derives from the site of an early European house, believed that built by Capt.

Christopher Levett Capt. Christopher Levett (15 April 1586 – 1630) was an English writer, explorer and naval captain, born at York, England. He explored the coast of New England and secured a grant from the King to settle present-day Portland, Maine, the first ...

, an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

explorer of the region. The island sold for $5.35m in 2022.

Fort Scammell

Henry A. S. Dearborn Henry Alexander Scammell Dearborn (March 3, 1783July 29, 1851) was an American soldier, lawyer, author, and statesman. Dearborn was the first President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and ...

, an officer of the

Massachusetts Militia This is a list of militia units of the Colony and later Commonwealth of Massachusetts. *Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts (1638) *Cogswell's Regiment of Militia (April 19, 1775) *Woodbridge's Regiment of Militia (April 20, ...

and a future general, built Fort Scammell on the island in 1808 as part of the national second system of fortifications. It was named after

Alexander Scammell Alexander Scammell (March 22, 1747 – October 6, 1781) was a Harvard educated attorney and an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He was wounded on September 30, 1781, near Yorktown and subsequently died on Octo ...

Adjutant-General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

of the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, who was killed in action during the

Battle of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. (The middle names of the fort's builder were also chosen after Scammell, a friend of the builder's father,

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

Henry Dearborn Henry Dearborn (February 23, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was an American military officer and politician. In the Revolutionary War, he served under Benedict Arnold in his expedition to Quebec, of which his journal provides an important record ...

.) The fort was designed for harbor defense, with cannon batteries designed to protect the main shipping channel into Portland harbor, along with

Fort Preble Fort Preble was a military fort in South Portland, Maine, United States, built in 1808 and progressively added to through 1906. The fort was active during all major wars from the War of 1812 through World War II. The fort was deactivated in 1950. ...

. The spelling of the fort's name varies among references. The fort was made of stone, brick, and earth, and initially mounted fifteen guns and a 10-inch mortar. The Secretary of War's report on fortifications for 1811 describes Fort Scammell as "a circular battery of masonry with circular flanks, mounting fifteen heavy guns, is covered in the rear with a wooden

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

, mounting six guns...". Typical weapons of the period were 24-pounder or 32-pounder

smoothbore A smoothbore weapon is one that has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars. History Early firearms had smoothly bored barrels that fired projectiles without signi ...

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

. In the 1840s–1850s, as part of the national third system of fortifications, Fort Scammell was modernized by extending its walls to enclose a larger area.Fort Scammel article at FortWiki.com
/ref> Thomas Lincoln Casey, an

Army engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...

officer known for his work on the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...

, completely rebuilt the fort beginning in 1862 during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. As rebuilt to the new Third System design Fort Scammell was unique in the US, with the design centered on two three-tier stone-and-brick bastions connected by earth walls rather than stone curtain walls. A third bastion was never completed. To allow timely completion, the remaining bastions had a tier or two each removed from the design. As completed, the west bastion had a single tier of

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

s and the east bastion had two tiers. In the 1870s additional earthworks to accommodate 10-inch and 15-inch

Rodman gun Drawing comparing Model 1844 8-inch columbiad and Model 1861 10-inch "Rodman" columbiad. The powder chamber on the older columbiad is highlighted by the red box. The Rodman gun is any of a series of American Civil War–era columbiads designed by ...

s were constructed, but only some of these were completed due to a national freeze on fort construction in the late 1870s. Fort Scammell was not re-armed in the Spanish–American War of 1898, and was listed as disarmed in a 1903 report. Two emplacements for anti-aircraft guns were added in 1917, probably for the

3-inch gun M1917 The 3-inch gun M1918 was a United States 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that entered service in 1918 and served until it was largely superseded by the 3-inch anti-aircraft gun M3 in 1930, though the M1918 remained with some National Guard units until ...

. Of all the forts in Casco Bay, Fort Scammell was the only fort to fire a shot and be fired upon in battle, in early August 1813.

Immigration Quarantine Station

The island was later the site of an immigration

quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...

station from 1907 to 1937, and was considered the '

Ellis Island Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...

of the North'. The quarantine station was busiest in the early 1920s, after the adoption of the

Emergency Quota Act __NOTOC__ The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, of May 19, 1921), was formulated mainly in response to the larg ...

, which restricted the number of immigrants who could enter the country. In November 1923, the ships ''President Polk'' and ''George Washington'' were diverted from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Portland, and 218 immigrants from those ships were quarantined at the station. Many of the immigrants were

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Jewish immigrant women from Portland built a

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

kitchen on the island. The island was considered "ideal" by immigration officials. A

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

station was located at the docks in Portland, allowing easy rail access for immigrants arriving in Portland. Additionally, William Husband, Commissioner General of United States Immigration, said the whole island was secure and "The whole of House Island was available in that case, instead of those detained being obliged to go out under guard with only few patches of green grass upon which they might set foot, as at some other places." The 1920 brick detention barracks have been demolished, but the original 1907 buildings remain, including the doctor's house, the detention barracks, and the quarantine hospital.

References

# ''Documentary History of the State of Maine, Containing the Farnham Papers'', Mary Frances Farnham, Maine Historical Society, 1901 # ''Maine's Casco Bay Islands: A Guide'', Nance Trueworthy, David A. Tyler, Down East Books, 2007 # "3000 Immigrants Due at Portland for November Quota," ''

The Daily Kennebec Journal The ''Kennebec Journal'' is a six-day morning daily newspaper published in Augusta, Maine. It is owned by MaineToday Media, which also publishes the state's largest newspaper, the '' Portland Press Herald''. The newspaper covers Augusta and the s ...

'', October 30, 1923 # "25 Years Ago Today," ''

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

'', November 5, 1948 # "Immigration Head Loud in Praise of Pier at Portland," ''The Daily Kennebec Journal'', November 28, 1923 # ibid, ''The Daily Kennebec Journal'', November 28, 1923

Citations

Bibliography

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External links