Congress Street #3 Monument Square

As part of my occasional series Congress Street, I've looked thru my image library and picked out a few different uses of Portland's busiest meeting place. Originally called Market Square and home to Portland's 1st city hall, it is used today as a farmers market, a focus of several holidays, a place for public protest or a place to relax over lunch. The picture below is from the book Portland: Then & Now, which I previewed in a post last year.

The first is an 1879 view of Market Square which shows Portland's old market house.  Constructed in 1825 it was modified in 1832 into Portland's first city hall, by Charles Quincy Clapp.  Torn down in 1888 it made room for the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in 1891, in todays Monument Square.

Protest

Learning

The Wednesday Farmers Market

Parades

Winter Fun

Home to the Yearly Christmas Tree

For those who haven't heard

As anyone who watches TV or reads the Forecaster or Portland Press Herald probably knows Red's Ice Cream in South Portland had a fire late sunday night. If you've stopped by looking for an ice cream at this landmark you've seen the smokey outside, the  sign and the dumpster. The good news is they plan on re-opening, the bad news is it's going to be awhile.

Cinco de Mayo

Finally got back out on the streets today with a camera, happy Cinco de Mayo.  It was also the first Wednesday for the Portland farmers market in Monument Square. I wanted to see how many people both vendors and shoppers would be around?  Smallish on both counts, but I was there before the noontime rush so I expect crowds were bigger later. Some of the art crowd was in the square as well... lovely yarns in front of the Public House.

After supper I stopped by El Rayo and the place was crowded as you would expect with a waiting line for a seat inside and lots of take out orders. 

I'll post some of my pictures from Prague, mostly an eclectic selection, over the weekend.  Came close to being Volcano'd but made it back on schedule late last Thursday. Just enough time to rest up for a family wedding on Sunday.