Some things are just too cool to not put on the Internet.

While researching another story, I found this circa-1775 map in the back of a library book. If you click on the photo below and zoom around, you’ll see the Western Promenade used to be orchards and swamplands. There was a stone wall separating Munjoy’s Hill (and the bushes on it) from the rest of the city. The harbor splashed on Fore Street. Portland used to have a windmill, a fountain on Love Lane and a jail by the old hay scales. So cool.

Click on the photo below. It will bring you to a much larger version of the map, so it might take a while for it to load. But once you’re there you can zoom in and click around to see what our fair city used to look like.