Much of the architectural bones of Portland can be traced back to entrepreneur J.B. Brown, who at one time owned 30 percent of the taxable property in the city – from Congress Street and Monument Square to the waterfront and the West End.
“J.B. Brown & Sons has been a driver of Maine’s forward motion for close to two centuries,” said Stephen Bromage, executive director of Maine Historical Society.
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In fact, one of the sons, Civil War veteran John Marshall Brown, was an adviser in the construction of the historical society’s library, built in 1907, that now bears his name.
Today’s president and CEO of J.B. Brown & Sons, Vincent Veroneau of Portland, tackled an issue similar to the one John Marshall Brown worked on over a century ago: need for library space. The Maine Historical Society has been collecting since the 1820s, and both the MHS library and the Portland Public Library are filled to the brim.
“With Vin’s leadership and direction, we began talking about how we could solve this problem,” Bromage said.
This year, the two libraries jointly purchased a storage building on Riverside Street, freeing them both to be more welcoming to the public – more of what a 21st century library needs to be.
In fact, the first public event on the second floor of the society’s newly cleared-out Brown Library was a reception in honor of Veroneau, the 2014 recipient of the Maine History Maker Award.
“I was happy to be at an organization that was able to help” the Maine Historical Society and Portland Public Library, Veroneau said, thanking the J.B. Brown board of trustees for their support.
The award presentation was preceded by a lecture and slide presentation about the first three generations of the Brown family by Earle Shettleworth Jr., state historian for the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. “The tradition set by the first three generations continues to this day,” he said. “J.B. Brown was deeply interested in investing in the development of Portland.”
The crowd was peppered with J.B. Brown & Sons staff, board members and descendants as well as representatives of both libraries, lead sponsor CBRE The Boulos Company, other sponsors and historical society members.
“I’m really looking forward to hearing about my great-grandfather’s contributions to architecture in Portland,” said Margie Webster, a descendant of J.B. Brown from South Portland.
“We feel it’s important to support these events that recognize the people who make history here in Maine,” said Gayle Brazeau, with her husband Daniel Brazeau, of Scarborough.
Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer from Scarborough. She can be contacted at:
amyparadysz@gmail.com
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