Architect George M. Harding designed the Woodman Building at 133–141 Middle Street, a historic commercial block built in 1867. It rises here in the wake of the city’s devastating 1866 fire, one of the most elaborate, high-style commercial buildings to follow and counted among Maine’s largest Second Empire buildings. The block occupies the north side of Middle Street at its corner with Pearl Street and is flanked on the east by the Rackleff Building.
Look closely: it is a four-story masonry structure of brick with stone and iron trim. At street level the storefronts are articulated by iron pilasters and arches, while the windows of the second and third floors are grouped in ones, twos, or threes beneath elaborate stone arches. Stone beltcourses pick out the bottoms of those arches and join the window sills, giving a strong horizontal line to the facade.
Above it all is a mansard roof in the Second Empire style, with paired brackets in the eaves, corner turrets, and elaborate dormers. Notice that mansard roof with its corner turrets, then follow Middle Street toward Pearl and its neighboring block.