Portland City Hall, the center of city government in Portland, Maine, sits at 389 Congress Street on a prominent rise anchoring a cluster of civic buildings at the eastern end of downtown. This fourth city hall was built between 1909 and 1912 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The building occupies much of the city block bounded by Congress Street, Myrtle Street, Chestnut Street, and Cumberland Avenue, and stands at the head of Exchange Street. Its original main portion is a U-shaped granite structure, the U open to Congress Street; a modern ell extends along Myrtle Street behind the right leg of the U.
Look up at the central portion: three stories in height, roof dormers fronted by a low balustrade, and a tower 200 feet (61 m) tall rising from its center. Ground-floor windows sit in rounded openings that continue around the wings. Notice the three entrances, reached by a broad set of stairs, the central one topped by the city seal. The wings are two stories with projecting colonnades of Tuscan columns facing the inside of the U. Now take your eye to the 200-foot tower and around to the colonnades and the streets that frame this block.