Portland (/ˈpɔːrtlənd/ PORT-lənd) is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States.

The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region.

Brownstone quarried in Portland was used in the construction of Hartford's Old State House in 1796.

Later, one of the quarries was transformed into an adventure park in the summer months featuring zip lines, cliff diving and scuba locations.

Their name referred to the bend in the Connecticut River which curves around half of the town's perimeter.

Proximity to the river meant that the stone could be transported far and wide, and the Portland brownstone quarries supplied to New York, Boston and even San Francisco, Canada and England.

By the 1850s, shipbuilding became more important as an industry, and the economic center of town shifted toward the Gildersleeve area.

Immigrants from Ireland, then Sweden, then (to a lesser extent) Italy came to town to work the quarries.

Its name comes from Portland, England, a place famous for its freestone quarries.

After a vociferous controversy, a location for the new "Third Ecclesiastical Society of Middletown" meetinghouse was decided upon at "Hall Hill".

The Bristol, Connecticut native and Yale College graduate died in 1731.

"[5] Before quarrying became the town's chief industry in the nineteenth century, Portland was known for its shipbuilding.

During the American Revolution and the War of 1812 many U.S. Navy vessels were built in various shipyards in town.

Tinware and enamelware were produced in town in the late nineteenth century.

Within months of its establishment, Horace B. Buck, a native resident who later moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, donated $2,000 toward the erection of a separate library building, and the town appropriated another $1,000.

[4][5] In the early twentieth century, brownstone couldn't compete much with concrete, and the industry went into decline.

In 1936, the Connecticut River flooded the quarries effectively ending the industry in town.

[8] Gildersleeve Hall, District 1, was built in 1876 and located on Main Street.

[10] District 3 was located on Rose Hill Road opposite the residence of Walter W Olsen.

District 6, Pecausett School, 1830–1911, was located at the southwest corner of Grove Street and East Hampton Road.

District 7, the Bucktown School, 1830–1872, was built on the eastern end of Cotton Hill Road.

[12][13] Valley View Elementary School located at 81 High Street opened in 1954.

The project included a large addition that houses the new Portland Middle School at 93 High Street.

At the 2000 census there were 5,534 people in 2,225 households, including 1,495 families, in the Portland census-designated place, comprising the town center and the adjacent neighborhood of Gildersleeve.