Built ca: 1838 by Levi Bolton

An iconic Greek Revival double-house in the West End Neighborhood

It is undoubtably the oldest of the type we have looked at yet. And, we have looked at a few. It is also a very early example of Greek Revival for Portland. So early that I have to wonder where Levi Bolton got the idea. There were pattern books and builders guides that were starting to show the new style at the time. Around the same time our subject was built, Charles Q Clapp donated a series of such publications to the Maine Charitable Mechanics Association. Although we cannot be sure, it seems plausible that Levi got some inspiration from them. He may also have gotten ideas from Charles Quincy Clapp who was an early proponent of the style and had built his monumental home a few blocks down Spring Street in 1832. Contemporary to our subject is a Greek Revival back to back double-house at the corners of Brackett and Salem Streets, also built by Charles Q Clapp.

Levi Bolton was born in Portland in 1798. He married Sabrina Cobb, born in Portland in 1806, in 1823. The couple lived in a couple of locations on the peninsula while having 6 children between 1825 and 1845. Where he learned his trade is not evident, but Levi was a joiner. He purchased the property for our subject from a mason named Hiram Winchester in April of 1836.

The house Levi Bolton built measures 42′ on Spring Street and is 35′ deep. It is 1 story with a second in the garret. There is a 2 story ,13′ wide ell extending 18′ from the rear of #211. The details, outside of the oversized paneled pilasters, is restrained. The architrave is thoroughly delineated with the entablature marked by a series of mouldings. the frieze is plain and capped with a dentil mouldings. The windows have boxed pilasters on the sides and are capped with a simplified version of the architrave.

The main facade, between the pilasters, has horizontal siding that is flat. Although incomplete in it’s present form, would have been tightly fitted, then painted, possibly with some sand thrown in, to look like stone. All of the buildings on this side of Spring Street from Winter to Brackett present a high basement to the street. Some of this no doubt is due to the slope but, I suspect it is also in part due to this area being noted in Willis’ history of Portland as being swampy and overgrown. Were the builders trying to stay above the water?

Levi Bolton was not a wealthy man. He had spent $450 to buy the land for our subject and would need money to build. Much like builders today, Levi took out a loan. In this case, it was a mortgage of $300 against the property and “buildings that are, or may be erected thereon” from the Portland Mutual Fire Insurance Company in August of 1837. This was supposed to be for one year but notes on the document show it being paid off in 1846. In September of 1838, Levi Bolton sold the right side of our subject,#207, to Charles & Octavia Stubbs. The Stubbs family would remain at 207 Spring Street for over a century.

The Stubbs were siblings. Born in Portland in 1813 & 1810 respectively to Charles & Nancy Stubbs. Octavia never married and lived with her parents here and on Winter Street through their passing and onto her passing in 1896.
Charles Stubbs Jr. married Almira Sanborn, born in Harrison in 1815, in Portland in June of 1840. They had 6 children, 3 of whom died before the age of 5, by 1852. Charles worked as a mariner and ships carpenter before following his father in the block making trade.

Almira Stubbs died of ‘paralysis’ on January 3 of 1879. Charles died of consumption on November 15 of 1883. 207 Spring Street then passed to Francis Stubbs. Francis was born in 1852 and had married Elizabeth Courtney, born in 1853, in 1886. Francis and Elizabeth lived on Mellen Street before moving to Sherman Street. The elder Stubbs son, Albert, lived at 207 Spring Street along with a sister, Mary Augusta, born in 1843. Albert, born in 1841, never married. He worked as an agent for the International Steamship Lines before becoming a book keeper at various firms for many years and was longtime member of the Maine Historical Society. He lived here until his death in 1914.

Like her sister Octavia, Mary A Stubbs never married. She was a school teacher in the city. She died in 1934. In 1944, Francis Stubbs, along with his daughter who had married and moved to Manhattan, sold 207 Spring Street to Grace LeGault.

211 Spring Street was known as 209 until the property was converted to condominiums in 1986. I will be referring to it as 211 going forward.
211 Spring was sold to John Munger in 1842. This is interesting as Levi lived here after the sale. Munger was an attorney who lived in a Venetian Palazzo on State Street. Levi sold it for $600 and the existing mortgage went with it. Munger sold our subject in 1863 by which time Sabrina Bolton had died of consumption in 1857. Levi Bolton died in 1864, also of consumption.

1863 is when we pick the trail back up at 211 Spring Street. In November of that year, John W Munger sold the property to a civil engineer named James Hall. Hall was a native of Nova Scotia who worked for the Maine Board of Internal Improvements and surveyed countless routes for canals, railroad lines, and other items across the state. His first wife died in 1834, and he remarried a widow named Nancy Parker Ricker in New York City in October of 1842. In early 1866, Nancy filed for divorce from James claiming that he had moved out in June of 1860 “without cause.” James Hall was living in St Louis by this time. Divorce was granted in October of that year, with James selling our subject to Nancy in that same month.

When Nancy Hall died in 1886, she passed 211 Spring Street to her daughter Amanda. Nancy had 2 sons but she does not appear to have good relations with them. He will specified that she wished that her son Frank would have a place to stay when he visited Portland but she was not requiring this and Amanda would make to final decision. She also specified that Frank was to have no financial benefit for the property. Adding to the story, a letter at the Maine Historical Society, written by Amanda and Nancy to Brig. Gen. George F. Shepley in 1863 states that Frank was supposedly ill in a New Orleans hospital, where Shepley was military governor, but it was suspected that he was “living with another woman”. The pair had not heard from him directly and were asking for assistance. Francis, Frank, Ricker died in Portland in 1896. Robert Ricker, born in 1828 and died in 1894, is not mentioned in the will at all.

Amanda Ricker Hall had married Isaac C Nesmith in 1869. Nesmith was 16 years older than Amanda. He was a teacher of penmanship in the city for many years. During the Civil War, he worked as clerk in the War Department in Washington. The Nesmith’s had 2 children born in 1870 & 1872 respectively. Isaac Nesmith died of consumption on May 5 of 1878. Amanda never remarried. She lived here until her death in December of 1921. Her will passed our subject to her daughter Mary. Mary Nesmith taught school in Portland and never married. She passed away in 1960. She bequeathed 211 Spring Street to a distant relative on her father’s side named May Huxford. May lived in Brooks Maine, where Isaac Nesmith was born. Huxford sold it 2 months later to Grace LeGault.

Grace LeGault was born Grace Urbano in Rumford Maine in 1894. Her parents were Italian immigrants originally from Naples and had arrived in Providence RI in 1887. Anthony Urbano worked in construction before opening a grocery store in Portland. Grace married a Portland Police officer named George LeGault in 1913. George was born to Joseph & Susie LeGault in Portland in 1875. Joseph was a barber. George had something of a singing voice as the newspapers of the period of his teens regularly list, and cite, his appearances with various school and church singing/choral events. HIs siblings all sang and/or played music. George served in the Spanish American War and in China during the Boxer Rebellion.

George LeGault was involved in a 20 minute fight with a “frenzied escaped inmate of a Massachusetts hospital for the criminally insane” before taking him into custody. He was the last officer to leave Portland City Hall when it was destroyed by fire on January 24, 1908. The LeGault’s had 2 children, a son, Leo, in 1917 and a daughter, Rosemary in 1918. This was after George saw reservist duty in the early part of WWI. George LeGault died in 1941. Urban & Rose lived at home with Grace. Both children worked as clerks for the Maine Central Railroad in the offices of St John Street. By 1950, the family had moved to the lower east side of New York.

In 1960, Grace LeGault became the sole owner of 207 & 211. In 1963, she sold it to a real estate agent named Theodore Sweetland. He sold it in 1969. The property saw several different owners before being converted to condominiums in 1986.

207-211 Spring Street is listed as a 3 unit condominium. The condition is very good.