Portland’s Congress Street never disappoints Alexander Jaegerman when he rides his bicycle to and from his office at City Hall.

Not only is it a great place to watch people, he said, it is lined with restaurants, museums, historic monuments, music venues and a thriving art college.

“Where it once was languishing, it is now full of life,” said Jaegerman, the city of Portland’s Planning Division director.

The street between City Hall and Longfellow Square has seen its share of economic upheaval over the past two decades and now has finally earned some well deserved recognition from a nationally respected organization, Jaegerman said.

The American Planning Association announced in a news release Wednesday that Congress Street has been designated one of 10 great streets in America, earning it a lofty position alongside a few other nationally known streets in much larger cities. The association also included Broadway in New York City; King Street in Charleston, South Carolina; and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., on its list of 10 great streets.

“Congress Street has always been the spine of the downtown and the peninsula, but it has had its ups and downs,” Jaegerman said.

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For example, he said, a former landmark anchor store – Porteous, Mitchell and Braun – closed in the early 1990s. The building it once occupied is now home to the Maine College of Art, which purchased the structure in 1993 and gradually began to expand into the space.

The area around the Maine College of Art has evolved into a thriving arts district that features landmarks such as the State Theatre performance venue, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Children’s Museum of Maine.

To see the American Planning Association’s full list of great streets, neighborhoods, and public spaces in America, click here.

To see the association’s profile of Congress Street, click here.

The American Planning Association is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization based in Washington, D.C.

 


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