The Time & Temperature Building (official name 477 Congress Street) is a fourteen story office building located on Congress Street in downtown Portland, Maine. The building is named after the large display screen on the roof that flashes the local time and temperature.
Originally known as the Chapman Building, it was erected in 1924 as a twelve-story building. Together with the ten story Fidelity Trust Tower next door, these buildings were for many years two of Portland's tallest.
When it first opened, the Chapman Building once had the state's first indoor shopping center on its ground floor. A few shops still operate inside. In 1964, two additional floors were built, with the flashing time and temperature sign installed on the roof. At the time, Casco Bank & Trust was the main tenant of the building, so in addition to the time and temperature, the words "CASCO" and "BANK" also flashed. An updated sign was installed in 1999.
When the addition was added in 1964, its more modern design did not go well with the older section, and in the 1980s, a major renovation of the building took place, and this problem was corrected.
The building, being one of Portland's tallest, can be seen for many miles around, including from Peaks Island across the harbor. Many Portlanders depend on the Time and Temperature sign, as it has become a popular landmark on the skyline. On one occasion, the malfunction of the sign resulted in 60 phone calls to the owners of the building in the hours after the sign stopped displaying information.
Over the years, different sponsors have had messages flashing from the sign, including Portland Savings Bank, WMTW-TV, and most recently, The Law Offices of Joe Bornstein (with the message "CALL" "JOE"). Also, when there is a snowstorm, the words "PARK" and "BAN" flash to remind people not to park on the street during snow removal. Maine law normally prohibits flashing messages on signs visible from state highways, but the Maine Legislature passed an exemption in the law for the Time and Temperature sign, to allow it to use advertising to cover its operating costs starting in 1991.
Besides general offices, the building is home to television station WMTW, NESN Portland, and radio stations WTHT 99.9, WHXR "The Bone" (now simulcast on 106.3 and 106.7), WFNK Frank FM, on 107.5, and The Maine Sports Network on AM 870/1470 WLAM
Famous quotes containing the words time and, time, temperature and/or building:
“A two-year-old can be taught to curb his aggressions completely if the parents employ strong enough methods, but the achievement of such control at an early age may be bought at a price which few parents today would be willing to pay. The slow education for control demands much more parental time and patience at the beginning, but the child who learns control in this way will be the child who acquires healthy self-discipline later.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“It is the time we have now, and all our wasted time sinks into the sea and is swallowed up without a trace. The past is dust and ashes, and this incommensurably wide way leads to the pragmatic and kinetic future.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice.... It indicates better than any water hereabouts the absolute progress of the season, being least affected by transient changes of temperature. A severe cold of a few days’ duration in March may very much retard the opening of the former ponds, while the temperature of Walden increases almost uninterruptedly.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Travelling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.”
—Fanny Burney (1752–1840)