With the recent conclusion of Black History Month, it is vital to look beyond the surface of our local history. Having managed the Portland Observatory from 2006–2007, and returning as an assistant site manager for the 2025 season, I believe the current interpretation of this icon is incomplete.

The Portland Observatory is owned by the city but managed by Greater Portland Landmarks, a local nonprofit focused on historic preservation. As a public possession, it is especially important that the story told there reflects a comprehensive history. Currently, the interpretation fails to acknowledge a fundamental pillar of the tower’s prosperity: the economy of enslavement.

The observatory was a commercial tool for merchants whose wealth was tied to trade with the South and the Caribbean. The ships signaled from the tower were key players in a system dependent on enslaved labor. This past July, a docent discovered an 1835 article showing builder Lemuel Moody and original investors publicly supported Southern slaveholders against a growing abolitionist movement. (See Portland Press Herald, Aug. 15, 1835, page 3.)

Models for addressing such history exist. An intern for Pejepscot History Center in Brunswick recently researched the Skolfield family’s ties to the cotton trade, and both the Tate House and Victoria Mansion in Portland are confronting their own connections to slavery.

Greater Portland Landmarks should similarly research the observatory’s early investors and clients. Portland citizens deserve a nuanced picture of our past. Honesty is a necessary step toward a more inclusive future.

Bjorn Swenson
Portland