India Street: Immigration and Innovation

This tour through Portland’s oldest neighborhood encompasses the full sweep of the city’s fascinating history, from busy seaport to railroad and industrial center, to today’s dining and tourist destination. The tour focuses on the heyday of the neighborhood, the mid-19th to early 20th century, when it was home to a diverse population of Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants and one of the nation’s oldest free black communities – all living next to the wharves, train yards and factories that were the city’s economic engine. Walk with us through a compact urban neighborhood that has reinvented itself many times over.

Tour begins at the intersection of Franklin and Commercial Streets near the large globe. Parking is on the street or in pay parking lots in the area.