The family behind Portland’s Union Wharf is putting the historic pier on the market after more than 160 years of stewardship, citing estate planning and the need to provide for future generations.
Built in 1793, Union Wharf is the oldest in Portland, and has welcomed clipper ships, coal steamers and locomotives through the centuries, according to NAI The Dunham Group, the Poole family’s real estate broker.
The decision to sell did not come easily for Charlie Poole, who keeps a quill-and-ink copy of the 1793 charter of Proprietors of Union Wharf, where he serves as president and “wharfinger” – or wharf-keeper.
“Somebody wrote to me recently, saying, ‘It must be bittersweet’ (to sell the wharf), and I’m not sure ‘sweet’ is the right word,” Poole, 67, said in an interview Sunday. But, he added, “We’re at a point in time where we need to acknowledge that, in order to be fair to all, this is something we have to do.”
Shares of the Union Wharf business are being spread ever more thinly across the growing Poole family, forcing its members to think about providing for the next generations. But they hope to make sure that any buyer is like-minded in terms of keeping the working wharf in place.
It’s the first time Union Wharf has been put up for sale in its history.