[13][14] The first European settler was Christopher Levett, an English naval captain granted 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) in 1623 to found a settlement in Casco Bay.

During King William's War, a raiding party of French and their native allies attacked and largely destroyed it again in the Battle of Fort Loyal (1690).

[16] Following the war, a section of Falmouth called The Neck developed as a commercial port and began to grow rapidly as a shipping center.

In 1851, Maine led the nation by passing the first state law prohibiting the sale of alcohol except for "medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes."

Following nationalization of the Grand Trunk system in 1923, Canadian export traffic was diverted from Portland to Halifax, resulting in marked local economic decline.

The 1866 Great Fire of Portland, Maine, on July 4, 1866, ignited during the Independence Day celebration, destroyed most of the commercial buildings in the city, half the churches and hundreds of homes.

Since the 1990s, the historically industrial Bayside neighborhood has seen rapid development, including attracting a Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's grocery stores, as well as Baxter Academy for Technology and Science, a charter school.

Portland has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb, closely bordering on Dfa), with cold, snowy, and often prolonged winters, and warm to hot, yet relatively short summers.

[29] The area can be affected by severe nor'easters during winter, with high winds and snowfall totals often measuring over a foot.

In Southern Maine, snowstorms can be intense from November through early April, while warm-season thunderstorms are somewhat less frequent than in the Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern U.S. (although their frequency has increased in recent years).

In 2015, the Portland Press Herald published a series of articles documenting the "super-tight apartment market" and the trauma caused by evictions and steep jumps in monthly rent.

Northeastern University was selected by technology entrepreneur David Roux to lead the institute that will include programs that will allow graduate student research.

[57][58] Portland has a long history of prominence in the arts, peaking the first time in the early 19th century, when the city was "a rival, and not a satellite of either Boston or New York.

Although the city lost to redevelopment its 1867 Greek Revival post office, which was designed by Alfred B. Mullett of white Vermont marble and featured a Corinthian portico, Portland retains his 1868 United States Custom House on Fore Street.

Television stations include WCSH 6 (NBC), WMTW 8 (ABC), WGME 13 (CBS), WPFO 23 (Fox), WIPL 35 (ION), and WPXT 51 (The CW; MyNetworkTV on DT3).

Downtown Portland, including the Arts District and the Old Port, has a high concentration of eating and drinking establishments, with many more to be found throughout the rest of the peninsula, outlying neighborhoods, and neighboring communities.

[83] Celebrity chef Toni Fiore first filmed the PBS cooking show Totally Vegetarian in 2002 at the cable access station in Portland.

[84] The Portland Press Herald has featured a vegan column by Avery Yale Kamila in its Food & Dining section since 2009.

By 1852 the Winslow's Patent Hermetically Sealed Green Corn was a commercial success and the company became a world leader in the canning industry.

[110] In 1989, Marcy's Diner opened on Free Street, and in 2015 it made international headlines following a spat between the then-cook-owner and a patron over the latter's screaming child.

[111] In 1991, Becky's Diner opened on Commercial Street, after it got an exception to the city's zoning laws prohibiting non-fishery businesses on the waterfront, and has attracted famous patrons including Taylor Swift[112] and president Bill Clinton.

The Portland Sea Dogs, the Double-A farm team of the Boston Red Sox, play at Hadlock Field.

The Maine Mammoths of the National Arena League played in 2018 and were the first indoor football team to call Portland home.

[127] The current mayor is Mark Dion, who narrowly defeated city councilor Andrew Zarro after 5 ranked choice rounds in the November 2023 election.

On November 5, 2013, Portland voters overwhelmingly approved an ordinance to legalize the possession and private use of cannabis for adults, making the city the first municipality in the Eastern United States to do so.

Concord Coach Lines bus service connects Portland to 14 other communities in Maine as well as to Boston's South Station and Logan Airport.

Both the Downeaster and the Concord Coach Lines can be found at the Portland Transportation Center on Thompsons Point Road, in the Libbytown neighborhood.

Commercial air service is available at the Portland International Jetport (PWM), located in Stroudwater, west of the city's downtown district.

Direct flights are available to Atlanta, Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Minneapolis, Orlando, Philadelphia, New York, Newark, Raleigh-Durham, Sarasota, and Washington, D.C.[142] The Port of Portland is the second-largest cruise and passenger destination in the state (next to Bar Harbor) and is served by the Ocean Gateway International Marine Passenger Terminal.

[145] Bay Ferries announced on March 24, 2016, the charter of the former Hawaii Superferry boat HST-2 from the US Navy for the Portland-Yarmouth service for two years.