Lemeul Moody

These photos are the view from the Portland Observatory, in modern day. If you were standing at the top of the observatory in 1807, when Lemeul Moody built it, the view would be a little different. The land would not have had houses, there wouldn’t be trees or bushes, no roads, you might see the neighbors cow or a few horses. The land in front of the observatory was used to graze farm animals. The community of Portland would bring their animals there in the morning then pick them up at night, almost like an animal daycare.

Moody built the observatory to solve a business problem. He was once a captain, but after his wife complained he was never home he retired from the life at sea. He realized that everyone was complaining about the harbor. At the time, the Portland harbor was the third most active one locally. The problems were, no one knew when their boats were coming in, there was never enough space in the harbor, and when the boat did come in, there was no one to unload it.

Moody solved all of these problems. He only had a fifth grade education, but after many designs he finally crafted the octagonal structure; the only one like its kind still standing today on the east coast. Moody had to sell some of his stock share in order to get the funds for his project.
He knew the types of boats so well, when they were miles out he could tell what time of boat it was, and how long it would take to reach shore. Moody would raise a flag that told the men in the harbor what type of boat it was. The men would use this information to move the boats around in the harbor to make room for the incoming boat, if that was necessary. Then, using metal balls, he would attach them to a rope. Each different size ball stood for a certain amount of time. This allowed the men to know how soon the boat would be arriving in