Build date unclear
A large Greek Revival in the Park/Pleasant Street neighborhood
The fire started in the basement. Probably when a section of chimney pipe connecting the fireboxes of the boilers with the chimneys some how came lose. When it was noticed, at around 3 am on December 4, 1850, black smoke filled all the floors of the facility. Alarms were rung, but nobody lived nearby so they went unanswered. The hospital had no firefighting equipment on site and it would be an hour before any would arrive from the local towns. Even then, there were no wells that could supply water to the pumps.
Asylum for the Insane in Augusta. Chase Map of Kennebec County 1857. Library of Congress.
By 4:30, the floors were collapsing. By sunrise, the ‘old’ south wing of the Maine Asylum for the Insane was a shell with no roof or floors. Around 40 patients were missing. Some were found being sheltered by locals. Others were found roaming the grounds barely clothed in the sub-freezing weather. Of the 78 men in the south wing, 26 lost their lives. One of them was Nathaniel Flint.
When Nathaniel Flint built our subject isn’t clear. That he lived on Pleasant Street in the 1820’s is shown by his appearance in the 1823 and 27 city directories. That being said, I doubt 92 Pleasant Street was built much before the late 1830s. The dating difficulty arises in the fact that, according to the Registry of Deeds, neither Nathaniel or his wife Statira, ever bought property in Portland. When she sold the home in 1851, Statira Flint stated it was the “dwelling house of my husband, Nathaniel, now deceased” but there is no reference to how he acquired it.
The house is tall, narrow, and deep which fit it’s similarly narrow and deep lot. With the 2 bay front and the bay windows, one might be inclined to call it an ‘East Ender’ of the 1870s or 80s. A closer look reveals an older home. The most obvious items are paneled the corner pilasters. These are almost unheard of in the later houses and start to place 92 Pleasant Street in the Greek Revival mode. An entablature is no doubt covered by the odd, vertically installed, vinyl siding at the eave line. Add in the closed pediment & inset entry with full portico which is very much akin the those on the Park Street Row, and I am of the belief that the house is from the late 1830’s.
-
- 1827 City Directory
-
- 1823 city directory
Nathaniel Flint was born in Portland in 1794 as was his wife Statira Adams Flint. They married in 1817 and had 8 children with 3 dying before reaching their first birthdays. His entries in the city directories show he was a ship rigger. With Portland being a maritime city, Nathaniel was no doubt as busy as he wanted to be. He wasn’t mentioned in the news until 1844 when the piece below appeared in the Eastern Argus on Feb 20 of 1844. What had happened to Nathaniel isn’t noted but the 1850 census, which oddly showed him living in Portland, listed him as insane. And, as we know from above, Nathaniel did not live to see 1851.
Daily Eastern Argus February 20, 1844. Newspapers.com
When 92 Pleasant Street was sold by the Flint family, the purchaser was a blacksmith named James Staples. James was born in Cape Elizabeth in 1810. He married Frances Burns, born in 1814, in 1833. They had 6 children. James was a blacksmith but he specialized in the production and repair of edged tools such as axes, adzes, auger bits, and other tools needed in the working of wood and stone. Much like Nathaniel Flint’s trade as a rigger, James Staples’ skills would have found a steady demand on the Portland waterfront. His obituary, printed on his death in 1883, praised Staples as on of the prominent edge tool makers of the city. He served as a captain the Portland Artillery Militia and of the Home Guard during the Civil War. He was a long time member of the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association.
James Staples advertisement in the 1850 city directory
In a sad bit of fate, a mortgage that James Staples had taken on the property in 1870 was foreclosed on 8 months after his death.
Notice in the September 9, 1883 Portland Daily Press. Newspapers.com
The bay windows were most likely added in the 1880s as they were very popular in the period. I wonder if the replaced tall windows fitting the Greek Revival style.
When the Maine Savings Bank sold 92 Pleasant Street in 1886, the purchaser was a Portland native named John Polleys. John was born in 1836 and spent most of his life within walking distance of our subject. His sister, Sarah, married Edward Elwell in 1852. John never married. He served in the Civil War and was taken prisoner. Polleys was held in the Libby Prison in Richmond prior to being released as a part of an exchange in 1862. He lived here at 92 Pleasant Street, renting out rooms, until his death in 1922.
Libby Prison. Library of Congress
92 Pleasant Street in 1924. Maine Memory Network
After John Polleys’ death in 1922, his estate sold 92 Pleasant Street to John & Loretta Malia. John was born in Portland and grew up on Pleasant Street. John served in WWI and married Loretta Coffey in Berlin NH in 1919. They did not have any children. Loretta died sometime between 1922 and 1934 when John passed the house to his sisters Anna and Irene, The deed notes that John was widowed. Loretta was buried with her parents in Berlin. I cannot find any record of her death and the cause. Anna & Irene Malia owned 92 Pleasant Street until 1946. They did not live here. The property was rented out and seems to have been as early as 1926 when the city directory for that year listed a taxi driver named Harold Blenis along with his wife Mary and a Mrs Annie B Blenis.
John Malia in the March 16, 1926 Portland Evening Express. Newspapers.com
When the Malia sisters sold 92 Pleasant Street in 1946, the buyer was an Italian born WWII veteran named Rocco DiDonato. Born in 1927, Rocco had come to the US in 1930. He married Phyllis Smith in 1947. They had 7 children. Rocco worked for 35+ years as a tree surgeon for Lucas Tree. The DiDonatos sold our subject to Selma Wilson. Selma was 51 years old and worked as a packer at Burnham and Morrill. The 1963 city directory shows Selma living here along with George and Olga Simpson. Olga was Selma’s elder sister. Selma may have been divorced as she was born Selma Nielsen and had married Gordon Wilson in 1935. The 1963 city directory showed Gordon living on Preble Street in South Portland. Selma Wilson lived at 92 Pleasant Street until her death in 1995.
92 Pleasant Street is listed as a 2-family home. The condition is good.
Portland House Stories 