Abraham Robinson Block

115 Middle Street

Next to the headquarters of the Portland Police Department on Middle Street is the three-story brick Abraham Robinson Block, named for Russian Jewish immigrant Abraham Robinson. Born in 1876 in Russia, Abraham Robinson and his family immigrated to the U.S. in the 1890s. Abraham recorded his occupation as music teacher on his wedding certificate, and a furniture merchant soon after. But by the 1920s he owned several commercial and residential properties, and his daughter Bessie recalled that he had “gone into real estate.” When he bought 115 Middle in 1911, it housed a one-story wood commercial building, a duplex tenement, and a brick house. In 1914, Robinson constructed the current commercial block for his clothing store on the first floor, flanked by a grocery store and drug store.

On the second floor was Robinson’s Hall—a venue for weddings, dances, and meetings of labor organizations like the Hod Carriers and Building Laborers #12, the Portland Lodge of the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith, and The Poale Zion (Labor Zionist) group. The latter was first organized early in 1915, initially as the Portland Hebrew Literary Club. It had sixty members and provided a forum for discussion of Jewish literature, social welfare and Zionist ideology. The upper stories of the building were later adapted for manufacturing.

For almost seven decades, from around 1928 to 1997, Myer and Esther Goldberg owned the building and operated Model Foods Market here. Later, when their son Saul took over, it was known as Model Food Importers, and featured foreign foods from around the world. The local newspaper commented they had a reputation for stocking everything from almond powder to frozen rabbit. Myer’s grandson, Lee Goldberg, recalled, “It was a gathering place for everybody in the Old Port, where the memories were just as good as the products. My grandfather never believed in cash registers and always wore a leather apron. Always believed in a strong handshake and looking people in the eye. People would go into the store to get something that should only take about five minutes and then they would leave an hour later laughing after spending the time chatting with my father and my grandfather.” Saul was at different times the president of the Jewish Community Center, president of the Scarborough Rod and Gun Club, and always an avid Red Sox fan–a passion he passed on to his son, Lee, who is now a news and sportscaster for News Center Maine as well as a cancer survivor and founder and chairman of the nonprofit Prostate Care Maine.

In 1998, the Robinson block was acquired by local real estate developer East Brown Cow. The company’s president and CEO, Tim Soley, is a member of the Soley family—major property developers in Portland for more than 50 years. East Brown Cow invested in an extensive historic rehabilitation of the building that earned a 2023 Maine Preservation Honor Award. Local preservation experts restored the original beech flooring and tin ceilings, created a gilded entry sign based on an historic image, installed new roofing, and used leaded-copper to recreate historical details missing in the cornice. Today, the first floor of the building hosts retail space while the second and third floors have been revitalized into modern upscale “Urban Homes” that are part of The Docent’s Collection— an upscale hospitality offering in the Old Port.