Society Hotel
If time permits, we'll swing by and view historic Fire Station #2, just a few blocks from here. Otherwise the Society hotel is our last stop.
The Portland Seamen's Friend Society was formed to fight the evils of crimping, and to better the lot of seamen by providing lodging, provisions, books, advocacy, and evangelism.
In his eighteen eighty seven annual report, Portland chaplain Richard Gilpin noted that he had preached to 3,478 individuals in the bethel, visited 114 ships, taught Bible study and singing classes, and succeeded in persuading forty sailors to sign "the teetotaler pledge", that's about 1%!
The society built this 4-story, Justus Krumbein-designed Mariners' Home in 1882, an alternative to the waterfront lodging houses that were often complicit in crimping. After struggling financially, they sold the hotel in 1903.
This intersection includes, to the south, a Japanese tea shop, an echo of Japan-town, one of the neighborhood’s many historic identities. To the east is C.C. Slaughters and Darcelle XV, institutions of LGBTQ+ night life, and kitty corner to Old Town Pizza and the Merchant's Hotel.
Below is also a stream of patrons to the methadone clinic, and milling about are the clients and residents of numerous social service agencies that are located in and adjacent to the neighborhood: Union Gospel Mission, Sisters of the Road, Portland Rescue Mission, and others.
Old Town today is a 24-hour community, and the confluence of two historic districts cradling the city’s earliest heritage.
It’s home to a concentrated population of people struggling with homelessness, poverty, addiction and mental illness.
It has gone in and out of fashion over the past century, and it’s poised for big changes to come.
The Society Hotel is located in a “fine, substantial brick” building, as the Seaman’s Friend Society described it – one built to be a “boarding house of good character,” according to history documented by Barney Blaylock in his book “Portland’s Lost Waterfront.”
The year was eighteen eighty three, and for $13,000, the Society had created a safe boarding house for sailors looking for rest, removed from the “crimps” and ship captains who traded in hustled seaman.
FROM ITS vantage at the corner of Northeast Third Avenue and Davis Street, at one time ground zero for the sporting ladies of the night, The Society Hotel straddles past, present and future. Two blocks away, the once dilapidated Grove Hotel that sheltered low-income residents has become the sleek and trendy Hoxton, a beacon on Burnside, catering to tourists. On Fourth Avenue, what was once a strip club, now beckons creatives to open boutiques, as well as many other changes.
The Society Hotel serves about 20,000 guests a year, and each one receives an emailed note stating in essence, “This is an urban environment, and we expect people to prepare for it.”
From the rooftop patio of The Society Hotel, guests can relax, have a fine view, and enjoy a fine cocktail high above the complex intersection of Northeast Third Avenue and Davis Street. Check it out!
THE END
Please check out our Post City Tour Bites Suggestions.
If time permits, we'll swing by and view historic Fire Station #2, just a few blocks from here. Otherwise the Society hotel is our last stop.
The Portland Seamen's Friend Society was formed to fight the evils of crimping, and to better the lot of seamen by providing lodging, provisions, books, advocacy, and evangelism.
In his eighteen eighty seven annual report, Portland chaplain Richard Gilpin noted that he had preached to 3,478 individuals in the bethel, visited 114 ships, taught Bible study and singing classes, and succeeded in persuading forty sailors to sign "the teetotaler pledge", that's about 1%!
The society built this 4-story, Justus Krumbein-designed Mariners' Home in 1882, an alternative to the waterfront lodging houses that were often complicit in crimping. After struggling financially, they sold the hotel in 1903.
This intersection includes, to the south, a Japanese tea shop, an echo of Japan-town, one of the neighborhood’s many historic identities. To the east is C.C. Slaughters and Darcelle XV, institutions of LGBTQ+ night life, and kitty corner to Old Town Pizza and the Merchant's Hotel.
Below is also a stream of patrons to the methadone clinic, and milling about are the clients and residents of numerous social service agencies that are located in and adjacent to the neighborhood: Union Gospel Mission, Sisters of the Road, Portland Rescue Mission, and others.
Old Town today is a 24-hour community, and the confluence of two historic districts cradling the city’s earliest heritage.
It’s home to a concentrated population of people struggling with homelessness, poverty, addiction and mental illness.
It has gone in and out of fashion over the past century, and it’s poised for big changes to come.
The Society Hotel is located in a “fine, substantial brick” building, as the Seaman’s Friend Society described it – one built to be a “boarding house of good character,” according to history documented by Barney Blaylock in his book “Portland’s Lost Waterfront.”
The year was eighteen eighty three, and for $13,000, the Society had created a safe boarding house for sailors looking for rest, removed from the “crimps” and ship captains who traded in hustled seaman.
FROM ITS vantage at the corner of Northeast Third Avenue and Davis Street, at one time ground zero for the sporting ladies of the night, The Society Hotel straddles past, present and future. Two blocks away, the once dilapidated Grove Hotel that sheltered low-income residents has become the sleek and trendy Hoxton, a beacon on Burnside, catering to tourists. On Fourth Avenue, what was once a strip club, now beckons creatives to open boutiques, as well as many other changes.
The Society Hotel serves about 20,000 guests a year, and each one receives an emailed note stating in essence, “This is an urban environment, and we expect people to prepare for it.”
From the rooftop patio of The Society Hotel, guests can relax, have a fine view, and enjoy a fine cocktail high above the complex intersection of Northeast Third Avenue and Davis Street. Check it out!
THE END
Please check out our Post City Tour Bites Suggestions.
