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Time and Temperature Building
Office building in Portland, Maine, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Time and Temperature Building, originally known as the Chapman Building, and officially 477 Congress Street, is a 14-story office building on Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine. The building, which replaced Preble House (a successor to the mansion of Commodore Edward Preble),[3] is named after a large three-sided four-element eggcrate display screen on the roof that flashes the local time and temperature. It was built in 1924 as a 12-story building, with Maine's first indoor shopping center on its ground floor.[4][5] It sits across Preble Street from the 10-story Fidelity Trust Building.[5] Until the 1970s, these buildings were Portland's only skyscrapers.[6]
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The building, one of Portland's tallest, is visible from miles away, including from Peaks Island across the harbor, and it has become a landmark to Portlanders who depend on it for the sign's time and temperature, but also mariners sailing into Portland harbor.
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Time and temperature sign
The time-and-temperature sign was added to the building in 1964.[7] In the 1970s, the Portland Savings Bank ran a summertime competition to guess when the sign would first register a temperature of 90 °F (32 °C).[7]
Maine law prohibits flashing messages on signs visible from state highways, but in 1991, the Maine Legislature passed a grandfather clause exemption to allow the Time and Temperature building to use advertising to cover operating costs.[8] A new sign was installed in 1999, which as well as the time and temperature, broadcasts messages consisting of two lines, each with four characters.[8] Advertising messages have included "WMTW NEWS", from television station WMTW-TV, whose studios were located in the building from 1999 until 2015,[9] and "CALL JOE", from advertising lawyer Joe Bornstein.[8] When a snowstorm is severe enough to result in a snow emergency, the sign flashes the words "PARK BAN", to remind people not to park on the street.[8]
In 2010, when a malfunction resulted in the sign going dark, around 60 concerned people contacted the building's owners to let them know.[8]
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History
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The Chapman Building was designed by local architect Herbert W. Rhodes, who also designed the nearby hotel The Eastland.[10] In 1964, Casco Bank, the owner of the building, added two stories, and installed a flashing time-and-temperature sign on the roof.[7] The addition was incongruent with the original style of the building, but a major renovation in the 1980s more naturally integrated it into the lower floors.[citation needed]
In 1995, millionaire philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce's Libra Foundation purchased the building.[11][7] Renovations were completed in 1996,[1] and a new time-and-temperature sign was installed on the roof in 1999.[8] In 2003, the Libra Foundation sold the building to 477 Congress LLC, a subsidiary of Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates.[7][5] By 2016, occupancy dropped to 60%, as lack of maintenance had caused tenants to vacate the building.[7] The building was taken into foreclosure by Wells Fargo on May 11, 2016.[7] Building ownership passed to CW Capital Asset Management, a loan servicing company. An inspection in November 2017 by the Portland Fire Department found 19 fire-safety violations.[12] The building was sold at auction for $9.3 million in October 2018 to TT Maine Venture.[4]
In 2023, a planned conversion of the building into a hotel was put on hold due to labor shortages.[13]
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References
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