- City:
- Portland, ME
- Site Type:
- Public Housing, Civic Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
“The Public Works Administration funded the construction of buildings for Federal, State, and local government. Portland was granted 45 percent of the cost of a new boiler house, heating plant, laundry, and additional housing for the nurses at the city home and hospital.”
The City Home and hospital refers to todays Barron Center “The origins of today’s Barron Center date back to the early 1800s when the City of Portland established an “Alms House” on Portland Street. Its purpose was for the care of the City’s poor, elderly and mentally disabled. By 1870 the Alms House was replaced with the Greely Hospital. By 1902-1904 operations improved with a new structure on the present site of the Loring House at 1125 Brighton Avenue. Two buildings were constructed, the Farrington Hospital provided medical, surgical and pediatric services; the Boothby Home provided a residence to the City’s vulnerable and homeless citizens.”
Source notes
Creating Portland: History and Place in Northern New England by Joseph A. Conforti
https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1108/Barron-Center-History
Site originally submitted by Andrew Laverdiere on June 28, 2016.
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