National Register of Historic Places

Rackleff Building

Portland, Cumberland County, Maine
Listed
May 8, 1973
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
73000123

About this property

The Rackleff Building is an historic commercial building at 129–131 Middle Street in the Old Port commercial district of Portland, Maine. Built in 1867, to a design by architect George M. Harding, it is, along with the adjacent Woodman Building and Thompson Block (both also Harding buildings), part of the finest concentration of mid-19th-century commercial architecture in the city. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Rackleff Building is located in Portland's Old Port area, on the north side of Middle Street, west of Franklin Street. It is flanked on the left side by the Woodman Building, and is separated on the right from the Thompson Block by Church Street, a narrow side street. The building is three stories in height and roughly a parallelogram in shape, with a rounded section at the sharply angled corner with Church Street. The ground floor has a cast iron facade that is essentially the same as that of the Woodman building, but about one foot shorter. Piers of clustered narrow round columns support arches and an entablature. Windows on the upper levels are set in segmented-arch openings, with bracketed lintels and eared hoods that are joined by a stone stringcourse. The windows in the center of the Middle Street facade are more ornately decorated, and the building has a cornice with paired brackets, and bands of freestone hexagons and quatrefoils between. The Church Street facade has similar but simpler styling. The building was constructed in 1867, the same year the other two buildings were constructed. All were built in the wake of Portland's 1866 great fire. George M. Harding, who came to Portland in 1858, played a major role in the rebuilding of the city's commercial district after that blaze. National Register of Historic Places listings in Cumberland County, Maine

Location

127, 129, 131, 133 Middle St.
Portland, Cumberland County, Maine
43.65874, -70.25329

Categories

COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENTARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Woodman Building
Industrial
0 mi
Thompson Block
Industrial
0 mi
Lincoln Park
Listed
0.1 mi
First Baptist Church
Industrial
0.1 mi
Mariner's Church
Industrial
0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Siege of Fort Loyal Casco 1690
1690Colonial
0.1 mi
Siege of Fort Loyal (Falmouth) 1690
1690Colonial
0.1 mi
Raid on Falmouth (Casco, Maine) 1690
1690Colonial
0.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was Rackleff Building listed on the National Register?

Rackleff Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1973.

What type of historic resource is Rackleff Building?

Rackleff Building is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Rackleff Building?

The period of significance for Rackleff Building is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Rackleff Building?

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