Alice Greele's Tavern

300 Congress Street

Widow Alice Greele’s Tavern, a popular gathering place in Portland from 1735 to 1775 provided home-cooked meals, lodging, and entertainment. As tensions grew between the colonists and England, the tavern became a location for heated discussions. Greele gained heroic status when she defended her tavern against the flames of a British attack in 1776. Because her building was one of the few public buildings to survive, it was used for the county court sessions until 1787, when a new court house was built. The building was a landmark for more than a hundred years.

• Maine Memory Network

Historic photos courtesy of Collections of Maine Historical Society, used by permission of Maine Historical Society. It is exempt from the Creative Commons license of this project.