Porteous, Mitchell & Braun was Maine's largest department store. The Flagship store, at about 150,000 sq ft, was on Congress Street in Portland, with branches in the Newington Mall (NH), the Auburn Mall, Bangor Mall, Aroostook Centre Mall and Maine Mall (ME), and downtown Burlington, VT.
Porteous opened in Portland in the early 1900s across the street from Rine's Brothers Department Store, and probably stayed downtown too long. The Maine Mall, which began with a large Jordan Marsh store in 1969, eventually drained all the retail activity from Downtown Portland. Despite extensive remodeling, the Portland store finally closed in 1991. The chain was sold to Dunlap Stores in the mid-90s, with the final branch store closing in 2003.
The building now houses the "Maine College of Art", which despite its boosters, doesn't seem to have created much activity in the abandoned downtown area.
