Porteous, Mitchell & Braun Co., or simply Porteous, was a mid-market

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

based in

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. Company headquarters was in the

Porteous, Mitchell and Braun Company Building The Porteous, Mitchell and Braun Company Building (also known as the Miller Building) is a historic building at 522-528 Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine. Built in 1904 and enlarged in 1911, it housed Porteous, which was Maine's larg ...

, a building built in 1904.

Flagship store

At the time the store was opened in 1904, it was the largest department store based in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

. The store on Congress Street in downtown Portland was the flagship location. In the 1990s, it was renovated and housed the

Maine College of Art & Design Maine College of Art & Design (MECA&D) is a private art school in Portland, Maine. Founded in 1882, Maine College of Art & Design is the oldest arts educational institution in Maine. Roughly 32% of MECA&D students are from Maine. The college is ...

. The building has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1996.

Expanded locations

Porteous expanded and opened branch locations in Maine,

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, and Vermont. The first branch took over another store that had ceased operations. In Newington NH, Porteous opened in the Newington Mall (now The Crossings at Fox Run) in a location formerly occupied by Sutherland's, the only branch store of a Lawrence MA-based department store that ceased operations in 1976. Other Porteous branches were opened in new shopping malls that opened in the late 1970s and early 1980s including the Auburn Mall in Auburn, ME (1979), Bangor Mall in Bangor, ME (1978), Burlington Square Mall (now CityPlace Burlington) in Downtown Burlington, VT and the Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle, ME (1993). The former W.T. Grant store in Cooks Corner Shopping Center in Brunswick ME had been taken over by JC Penney, but was subsequently closed when the JC Penney store opened at the expanded Maine Mall in South Portland in 1983. Porteous not only opened in The Maine Mall at this time but also took over the Cooks Corner location. The downtown Portland flagship store closed not long after the Maine Mall store opened.

Decline and shutdown

Owned by the Dunlaps Store chain based in Texas in its last years (starting around 1993), and operated as "PMB, Inc.--a Division of Dunlaps", the chain found itself flustered with new competition as many regional and national chains started to open units in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont communities where Porteous previously had carved out its niche in the mid-market department store business. The chain started to shut down in the mid-1990s, closing its Newington NH, and South Portland ME stores, and was completely shuttered by 2003 when its last store in Presque Isle closed."Presque Isle Porteous store to close in October," ''Bangor Daily News,'' August 28, 2003.

References

{{reflist Defunct department stores based in Maine Retail companies disestablished in 2003 Retail companies established in 1904 Defunct companies based in Portland, Maine 1904 establishments in Maine 2003 disestablishments in Maine