Part of one of the buildings' interiors in 2024, when it was the home of Twelve restaurant
The Portland Company was established 10 November 1846 by John A. Poor and Norris Locomotive Works engineer Septimus Norris as a locomotivefoundry to build railroad equipment for the adjacent Portland terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad connection between Portland, Maine, and Montreal.[1] The shops opened for business in October, 1847.[2] Its first locomotive, the Augusta, emerged from the shops in July 1848 for delivery to the Portland, Saco & Portsmouth (later part of the Boston and Maine Railroad). Over the next several decades, the company produced in its Fore Street facilities over 600 steam locomotives as well as 160 merchant and naval vessels, railcars, construction equipment, Knox automobiles, and the like. Portland Company built the engines of the civil war side-wheel gunboats Agawam and Pontoosuc.[3] Taking into account its other products, the company could lay claim to being one of the leading medium-to-heavy steel manufacturers in New England. The company ceased production in 1978.
Presently, according to The Portland Company Complex website, the site has become marine-oriented, with a small marina, several marine and other office tenants and the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. & Museum.
The Portland Company building is the only intact 19th-century industrial structure on the Portland waterfront,[4] and an area which has become known as Portland Foreside.[5] In February 2016, Portland City Council voted to approve the creation of a historic district which would permit a developer to demolish the former erecting shop in the complex but preserve seven other buildings during the creation of a public plaza.[6] Six months later, the developer asked to move the main building, built in 1895 and formerly known as the Pattern Storehouse, 230 feet (70 m) in order to add a road, parking garage and mixed-use buildings in the complex.[7]
As of 2024[update], one of the buildings is the home of the restaurant Twelve.[8]
5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm)-gauge locomotives for the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad
Coos was the 14th locomotive built by Portland CompanyFounder John A. Poor
In 1890, the Portland Company acquired patterns used by the Hinkley Locomotive Works for its two-foot gauge locomotives. Portland improved the pattern into the most successful design on Maine's two-foot gauge railroads.[citation needed] The Portland design retained ornate Victorian features including capped domes and a cab roof with reversing curvature. The first of the design was the heaviest and most powerful locomotive on any of the Maine two-foot gauge railroads at the time of delivery.[citation needed] Portland locomotives became the standard for passenger service as larger freight engines were built. Portland locomotives were subsequently used for yard service and on lines with lighter rail. The Portland Company was the dominant manufacturer of freight cars for the Maine two-foot gauge railroads between 1890 and 1907.[citation needed]
The final two-foot gauge locomotive built by The Portland Company was a less successful enlargement of the original design. Vulcan Iron Works built two modernized versions of Portland's basic design for the Monson Railroad in 1913 and 1918 after Portland Company ceased manufacture of railway locomotives. The basic Portland design pulled the last Kennebec Central Railroad train in 1929, the last Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway train in 1933, and the last Monson Railroad train in 1943.
