Cobblestones Home: Colonial Trail
: The
Asa Clapp Building
The Asa Clapp Building: an Early American Family
The Asa Clapp building was the most beautiful mansion of its time. It emerged on the corner of Elm and
Congress Street in
downtown Portland, built by Asa Clapp, a wealthy merchant who fought in
the Revolutionary War. The Clapps were generous people, donating space
in and in front of the house to local painters, rug makers, newspapers,
and more. Mary Jane Emerson Clapp, Asa’s grand daughter, lived in the
mansion, alone, until her seventies. As the surrounding neighborhood
converted to commercial property, the offers grew larger to to tear
down the mansion and convert it as well, but Mary Jane refused. Not
until she died and put it in her will to tear it down did they do so.
Now, all is left of the Asa Clapp building is the memorial
plaque to it on the facade of the current building. where it once stood.It should be on the Portland Freedom Trail because it was a well known place in the colonial times and was one of the very few buildings that survived the great fire of 1866. The Clapps were considerate people and deserve to be remembered in Portland’s history.
