The Lancaster Block is an historic commercial building in downtown
Portland, Maine
Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
. Located at 50
Monument Square, it is a fine local example of commercial
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...
. It was built in 1881 and enlarged in 1908; it is named for
Lancaster, New Hampshire
Lancaster is a town located along the Connecticut River in Coös County, New Hampshire, United States. The town is named after the city of Lancaster in England. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 3,218, the second largest in the cou ...
, the hometown of its builder,
J. B. Brown.
it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1982.
Description and history
The Lancaster Block is located on the south side of
Monument Square in central Portland, at the southeast corner of Center and
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
Streets, anchoring the southwestern end of the square. It is a six-story masonry structure, built mostly out of red brick, with terra cotta and granite trim elements. The main facade faces north, toward Congress Street and the square, and is seven bays wide, with a center building entrance flanked by storefronts of wood and glass. Windows on the second and third floors are paired sash, set in segmented-arch openings, while on the fourth floor the individual sashes, still two per bay, are set in individual arched openings. A band of terra cotta paneling (the former building cornice) separates the fourth and fifth floors, with a gable above the central bay. Fifth-floor windows are set in rectangular openings, while those on the top floor are set in rounded-arch openings, two per bay.
The building was designed by the partnership of
John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens (October 8, 1855 – January 25, 1940) was an American architect who worked in the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style. He designed more than 1,000 buildings in the state of Maine. ...
and
Francis Fassett, and was built in 1881 for developer
John B. Brown
John Brewer Brown (May 13, 1836 – May 16, 1898) was an American member of the United States House of Representatives, elected by Maryland's 1st congressional district.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Brown attended Centreville Academy and D ...
, then one of the city's leading businessmen. Originally only four stories were built; the upper two floors, which are stylistically sympathetic to the original, were added in 1908, their design credited to Fassett's firm.
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See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Commercial buildings completed in 1881
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Commercial buildings in Portland, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Portland, Maine
1881 establishments in Maine
Francis H. Fassett buildings