1866 great fire of Portland, Maine

The great fire of Portland, Maine, sometimes known as the 1866 great fire of Portland, occurred on July 4, 1866—the second Independence Day after the end of the American Civil War. Five years before the Great Chicago Fire, this was the greatest fire yet seen in an American city. It started in a boat house near today's Hobson's Wharf on Commercial Street, likely caused by a firecracker or a cigar ash.^[1] The fire spread to a lumber yard and on to a sugar house, then spread across the city, eventually burning out early the next morning on Munjoy Hill in the city's east end.^[1][2]

Ruins of the Great Fire at Portland, Me., 1866, by J. E. Baker

Looking west from Portland Observatory

Looking down Middle Street

Two people died in the fire and 10,000 people were made homeless. Around 1,800 buildings (1,200 homes) were burned to the ground, including the first of three city halls which have stood at the present Congress Street location.^[1] Also lost was the federal Exchange Building, which was replaced with the custom house. Soon after the fire, Portland native and acclaimed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described his old home town: "Desolation, desolation, desolation. It reminded me of Pompeii, that 'sepult city."^[3]

Aftermath

More than 600 buildings were constructed in four months after the fire.^[4]