Thumbnail image by Convinced Photography.
Monument Square in Portland, Maine started as Haymarket Square — a muddy crossroads where farmers sold hay and eggs under the old Market House, which doubled as a gym and later City Hall. It hosted everything from civic meetings to the 1855 Rum Riot, where locals protested liquor laws with deadly enthusiasm.
After the Civil War, the city tore the hall down and built the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in 1891 — a bronze goddess of “Victory” cast in Italy, forever watching over the chaos. The Square morphed from marketplace to memorial, then to the city’s business hub filled with trolleys, hotels, and skyscrapers. By the 1970s, the cows and riots were gone, replaced by coffee shops and office workers. Today, “Our Lady of Victories” stands above food trucks and festivals, reminding everyone that Portland’s downtown went from hay bales to hipsters without ever losing its soul — just trading pitchforks for lattes.
456, Congress Street, Downtown, Portland, Cumberland County, Maine, 04101
