Welcome To Fort Sumner Park

Fort Sumner Park across North Street began in 1775 during the Revolutionary War. Initially called The Great Fort and later The Citadel, it was commissioned in 1794 as the first federal fort in Maine as part of the new nation's coastal defense system. Heavy cannon were mounted at the far end of the park to protect Portland Neck and Back Cove and to defend the city's land and water approaches. In 1799, The Citadel was renamed Fort Sumner for then Massachusetts' Governor Sumner. At that time, Fort Sumner was linked to a five-gun coastal battery on Adams Street protecting the inner harbor by a series of covered trenches known as The Covert Way, with streets crossing over wooden bridges, allowing discreet passage of arms and materials between the two positions; traces of The Covert Way still exist. Between 1798 and 1808, Fort Sumner was rebuilt with a blockhouse, magazine, barracks, and a brick gun house. In the 1820s after the War of 1812, the fort was decommissioned, and in 1890 the City of Portland acquired the land from five separate owners for what became Fort Sumner Park. Part of the purchased land was used to build Schailer School on the southern side of the park, with much of the school standing on the former site of Fort Sumner and its barracks, while the park greenspace beside the school was the fort's former parade ground. In the 1930s, the park was landscaped with a carriage road looping around a gazebo where the viewing platform and benches now stand, and in 1940 the gazebo was demolished to improve the view. In 2016, citizens formed Friends of Fort Sumner in response to proposed adjacent development that would have obscured the park's vistas, and by working with city leaders and zoning authorities they secured a special zoning overlay to protect the views for future generations.

Portland, Maine · United States