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The Portland Observatory is about to blow out the candles on its 200th birthday cake.

By MEREDITH GOAD, Staff Writer June 10, 2007

It's survived the Great Fire of 1866, 21 hurricane-force winds, and a serious infestation of powder post beetles that almost brought it tumbling to the ground.

It's about to blow out the candles on its 200th birthday cake.

And you still can't take an hour out of your day to climb 103 steps to the top of the Portland Observatory?

The observatory, built on Munjoy Hill in 1807 by Capt. Lemuel Moody, is like an old friend that Portlanders assume will always be there. We can always go visit him next weekend, we tell ourselves. Or next summer. Or, well, sometime.

Well, that sometime is now.

On June 14, you can climb those creaky steps and take in the building's magnificent view for free during its 200th birthday celebration. There will be a bluegrass band, children's activities, and a new root beer created especially for the occasion to quench your thirst. Another day of free tours is scheduled for Sept. 15.

The Portland Observatory is a "must-do" for visitors to the city, but it's also one for people who live here. Yet last year, despite the fact that city residents get a $2 discount on the $6 admission fee, just 5 percent of paid admissions to the observatory were Portlanders.

The 360-degree view of the city, Back Cove and Casco Bay at the top is worth four bucks, but so are the tidbits you learn about the place -- and about Portland -- from the tour guide.

You may already know that the observatory is the last maritime signaling tower in the country. But did you know that the building actually sits on the ground, not in it, and that 122 tons of granite resting on top of cross beams serves as ballast to keep it steady?

Or that the 65-foot, 4-inch boards that stretch from the ground up to the cupola came from immense white pines that were cut in the Windham area and then floated down the Presumpscot River?

"They cost $12 apiece in 1807," noted volunteer guide Bob Krug on a recent tour, his 705th.

MANPOWER AND OXEN

Krug's detailed explanation of how the observatory was built is, alone, worth the price of admission.

"What I find probably most remarkable about the building is that it was built in seven months," Krug said. "He had no cranes, he had no power tools. He had nothing but manpower and oxen power."

Moody was born in 1767 and was one of 10 children. When he was 13, he joined the Navy and went to sea as a water boy. After 26 years at sea, he returned to Portland, which he felt had grown large enough to support a signaling tower. At that time, the city had a population of 6,000, Krug said, and had "a far busier harbor than we have today in terms of the number of vessels we have coming in and going out."

Moody enticed Portlanders to invest in his idea, and the 86-foot observatory began to rise on Munjoy Hill, which at the time was a cow pasture. Moody designed the structure himself, and he supervised construction.

"There was a weekly newspaper at the time called the Eastern Argus," Krug said, "and the editor said the building would fall over in the first wind. Well, the editor was wrong, and Moody knew what he was doing. It's been here 200 years. It's had 21 winds recorded of hurricane force, and it's never fallen over."

Moody installed a telescope on the lantern deck of the tower so he could see when ships were headed into Portland harbor. Local merchants bought $5-a-year subscription to his service. When their ship approached the harbor, Moody would raise a signal flag to alert them.

That allowed the merchants plenty of time to get to the wharves and prepare for unloading and reloading the vessels.

MOODY A MONEYMAKER

Moody was quite the entrepreneur. In addition to the observatory, his Munjoy Hill complex included stables, a banquet hall, a dance hall, a tavern and a bowling alley, as well as his own house.

"There isn't a lot of evidence that really gives us an idea of what his personality was like," said Bjorn Swenson, manager of education programs at Greater Portland...