I’m Jake Newman. The Portland Logbook is my love letter to this city: the food worth hunting down, the history that refuses to die, the corners you only find if you’re paying attention.

Deering Oaks Was Private Property

I spend a lot of time in Deering Oaks. I love it, even when it’s covered in an obscene amount of goose poop. I’m there most Saturday mornings grabbing food for the week from the farmers market, and I play a ton of tennis at the courts. It’s one of the few places that feels like an escape from downtown.

I was deep into researching properties that survived the Great Fire of 1866 and came across an old map showing a building sitting right where Deering Oaks is now. At first, I thought I was reading it wrong. I kept staring at it like… that doesn’t make sense. Why would there be a building right in the middle of the park?

Turns out the building was real, it just wasn’t quite where the map made it seem. By then I was already down the rabbit hole trying to figure out who owned the land, and it was the Deering family. Which I guess should’ve been obvious, I’d just never really connected the name before.

When Deering Oaks was privately owned 1878

Back in the early 1800s, this wasn’t a park at all. It was privately owned land, and a lot more of it than you’d think. The Deering family owned a stretch from Back Cove through what is now Deering Oaks all the way past USM. There was a massive mansion roughly where the USM campus sits today, a huge ornate barn, and the rest of it was working land, fields, and a few smaller outbuildings.

The Deering Estate Barn

In 1879, the city bought the land and turned it into a park. It was one of the last big open pieces left near downtown, so they kept it that way. A few years later, they brought in a local landscape architect named Charles H. Miller to work on it, but he mostly used what was already there.

Deering Oaks Park Map from 1879

That’s probably why it feels different from the other parks. It doesn’t feel super designed, it just feels like it’s always been there.

Most of the original estate is gone now. The mansion’s gone, the barn stuck around longer but eventually came down in the early ’60s, but there’s one thing left.

There’s a small farmhouse from the early 1800s that somehow made it through all of that. It used to sit on the edge of campus, and you’d probably walk right past it. When they built the new arts building, they didn’t tear it down, they actually moved it.

You can still go see it. It’s the last surviving piece of the whole Deering Estate.

Go See the Last Piece of the Deering Farmhouse

Feels Like People Are Getting a Little Tired of Being Online

The girl at the front desk at my gym was knitting a lilac-colored scarf, just sitting there between scanning people in. Not on her phone, not half paying attention, just knitting, smiling, and welcoming people.

I’ve been seeing more people reading in public too, actual books, out on the Western Prom or just standing in line for coffee around town.

A friend of mine started hosting craft nights, and it’s usually just groups of friends sitting around a coffee table, everyone working on something. Painting, linocuts, watercolors. No drinking, no movies on in the background, just people doing their own thing.

For a while, it felt like everything was pulling you onto a screen. Social media, news, Netflix, whatever. Even when you were out, you weren’t really there.

I don’t think people actually liked that as much as we pretended to.

You see it in places like Bold Magazine, Yes Books, Carlson and Turner, and The Art Mart. The Art Mart can barely keep linocut supplies on the shelves.

Even the Portland Museum of Art has been getting busier again. Not back to pre-COVID levels, but more people than the past few years.

Even a new stationery shop, OPE!, is opening on Congress in June which makes me want to start writing to people again.

It only works if people actually want that kind of experience again.

Portland is kind of perfect for it. Maine’s always had that make-it-yourself, slightly scrappy thing, and this just feels like a newer version of that.

Feels like we could actually lean into that and keep Portland feeling like Portland.

Does it feel like people are getting a little tired of being online?

THIS WEEKS CONDITIONS
☀️ SUNRISE: 5:28 AM
🌅 SUNSET: 7:48 PM
✨ Local Opening’s: The Parlor (Bath, Maine)
✨ Local Favorite “Shop” of the Week: Lazy Sun
✨ Local Artist of the Week: Addie Best
❤️ Local Job Listings: BLVL Multiple Seasonal Jobs

🐾 Adoptable Buddies of the Week! 🐾

🐶 Horace – 3 yrs
A resilient, tri-pawed dog with a big heart and an even bigger personality. Loves adventures, toys, and being close to his person. Best as the only pet in a calm home. Loyal, goofy, and ready for a real second chance.

🐱 Brick – 6 yrs
A bold, larger-than-life cat who prefers life on his own terms. Loves being outdoors and coming and going as he pleases. Best in a home without kids and with someone who understands his sassy side.

🐱 Jackson – 3 yrs
A shy guy at first, but likely to settle in with time and space. Best with older, cat-savvy kids who respect his boundaries. The kind that quietly comes into his own.

🐕 Interested? Check them out here

If the link doesn’t open anymore, it means they’ve already been adopted!