If you’ve been to DiMillo’s Restaurant on the Portland waterfront, you may have noticed the antique diving suit on display in the front lobby. Let’s take a look at the submarine diver who owned that suit, Bill Clark. Born in South Portland in 1927, William Augustus Clark III became more familiarly known to his friends, […]

When we look back at Portland Harbor news in the early 1900s, there are a few local divers who stand out. The term “submarine diver” was what they called themselves back then, using the term sub-marine to mean “under water.” These divers were not like the scuba divers that we think of today. Divers in […]

At South Portland Historical Society, we recently received donations of several items related to Capt. Irving Anderson and his family. Among the items are Irving’s telescope and his gorgeous Bacon Professional FF five-string banjo. Let’s take a look at this interesting Ferry Village man and his family. Irving’s parents, August P. Anderson and his wife […]

We pick up where we left off last week in our story about the Depression-era jobs program and the resulting Electrical Building in Mill Creek. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a program known as the Civil Works Administration. This short-lived, job-creation program began on Nov. 9, 1933, and South Portland was […]

You probably drive by the small building at 513 Broadway frequently and never give it a thought. The Electrical Building in Mill Creek has its own interesting history, notably its origin as a project of the short-lived Civil Works Administration in 1934. In early years, if a South Portland resident had a house fire, they […]