PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • November 15, 2021
Union Wharf, keystone of the working waterfront in Maine’s largest city for 228 years, is being purchased by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in a transaction that aims to maintain access for fishermen, oil spill responders, lobster wholesalers and other maritime businesses. The wharf has been in private hands since it was constructed in the aftermath of Portland’s destruction in the American Revolution. Members of the Poole family have owned it outright since the 1950s, investing in maintaining and enhancing the working pier over a half century when much of the city’s commercial waterfront was in decline. Working waterfront advocates have feared the property might wind up in less sympathetic hands.