23 Hampshire Street - Shelling & Wise Residence

23 Hampshire Street

This building and its more ornate sister building next door, 154 Newbury Street, was built in 1867-68 by Jotham Lewis (who was not Jewish). It is relevant that it is a brick building, built after the Great Fire of 1866 destroyed much of Portland’s wooden building stock.

23 Hampshire was a two-family house and so at least one of the apartments was usually rented. The history of its residents mirrors the history of Jews in Portland. In the 1890s through the early 20th century, the tenants were Jews. From 1906-1928, there were Jewish owner-occupiers with tenants of diverse backgrounds. From the 1930s through the 1980s, many Portland Jews moved to the suburbs (see the Woodfords, Deering & Beyond Trail); now, as the area gentrifies, some are moving back to this part of the city.

The Lewis’ moved out in the mid-1890s and rented the two apartments to two Russian Jewish immigrant couples: Simon and Rachael Dorfman, from 1896 to 1901, and Abraham & Jennie Moorgofski (also spelled Murkowsky), from 1896 to 1903. Simon was a silk merchant, and Abraham was a real estate broker who also served as a sexton for Congregation Shaarith Israel on Middle Street, which later became part of Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh located around the corner on Newbury Street (Stop E04).

In 1906, the Lewis’ sold the building to Philip (or Pacel) and Esther Shelling (also spelled Shilling), a Russian Jewish couple who came to the United States in the mid-1890s. Philip died in 1910, but Esther remained at 23 Hampshire until 1922, managing tenants and serving on the board of directors of the Portland Hebrew School around the corner on Newbury Street (Stop E04). One of her tenants was metals broker Jacob Cousins (1894 - 1918), who enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917 (see Stop E08). Her other tenants included a Black couple, Robert and Sally Saunders — Robert was a ship’s cook from Bermuda and Sally hailed from Virginia—and an Italian couple, Luigi and Emilia Nastri. Luigi was a freight handler for the Grand Trunk railroad.

In 1922, Esther sold the building to Leah Wise. Leah, her husband Abraham (a cobbler), and their daughter Emma were Polish Jews who came to the U.S. in 1909. Abraham died in 1928 and was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery (Stop C02). Leah sold the building that same year, and, apart from a few years in foreclosure during the Great Depression, it was owned by Italian American families until the 1980s. In 1934, Benjamin & Marianne Levinsky and their son Alan rented an apartment. Benjamin ran a retail fruit business in the Abraham Levey block around the corner (Stop M01).

With the recent gentrification of the area, 23 Hampshire was converted into four condos. Among the new residents was Donald Sussman, an asset manager and philanthropist who was, for a time, married to Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. Sussman, who lived here from 2010 to 2016, owned the Portland Press Herald for several years, and was a major donor to the renovation of Etz Chaim Synagogue (Stop E02).