2 Hours | Portland Hidden Histories Walking Tour

Overview

Meet Portland and the people—of all backgrounds and identities—whose wit and grit have made her who she is today. Your locally-raised tour guide will captivate you with extraordinary, exciting, and surprising stories about the hardy folks who destroyed and rebuilt Portland time and again over 400 years while you stroll historic streets past spots you’ll surely want to come back to explore. We’ll see where Indigenous Wabanaki leaders made their earliest relationships with European colonizers and walk through the centuries in the historic Old Port and working waterfront.

The Portland Hidden Histories Tour includes 2 hours of entertaining and enlightening historical narration over a 1.5-mile route through downtown Congress Street, the Old Port, and working waterfront along Commercial Street. Owner and guide, Dugan Murphy, takes guests to the most intriguing landmarks and presents an inclusive collection of hidden histories not included on other tours.

City: Portland

Sun 23 Feb

Other dates

You can choose the date already on the booking website

Starting at $49.00

Make a reservation

Sun 23 Feb

Starting at $49.00

Make a reservation

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What's Included

Two hour fully narrated guided tour.

Donation toward restoring the Abyssinian Meeting House, America's third-oldest standing Black church

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Pets are not allowed on tours unless medically required.
Guides required to regularly wash hands
Paid stay-at-home policy for staff with symptoms
Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons
COVID-19 vaccination required for guides
Masks are optional, but encouraged for non-vaccinated guests. You should bring a face covering in the event your tour group is invited inside a historic building for an impromptu visit or for use if you’d like while walking outside.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (156)

sean-travel-and-food

Apr 2022

I used to give tours in college, and I've been on many tours in new cities... Portland by the Foot is the best tour I've ever been on! Easy to book, easy to follow, easy on my wallet, and so fun to learn about Portland past and present. 10/10 Time flew as our guide walked us through classic Portland streets, painting pictures and weaving stories. The content was accessible and thought-provoking, less like a history lesson in school, more like an engaging conversation with a friend. The perfect way to spend an afternoon before our evening out. I thought about the tour for my entire week in the city. I actually want to go back and take the other tours they offer!

Response from Host

Apr 2022

I'm honored that Portland by the Foot ranks so highly amongst your other tour experiences. I hope you can return for the Black History Tour or the Women's History Tour!

Winston L

Mar 2022

If this is your first time walking around Portland, or if like me you've lived here for years, Dugan's tours will give you important context with which to enjoy Portland. It's a small city, but, it's history is deep & complex- it's apparent that Dugan has done a great deal of research in putting these tours together. Not all the stories have happy endings, or are all that pretty either- it's real history. I took the Hidden Histories tour, and then a week or two later the Black History tour. For a local like me the Hidden Histories tour had a few more things I knew about, though, there was civil war battle in Portland Harbor I'd never heard of, and some details about the great fires I didn't know! I would really recommend the Hidden Histories tour for folks who are new to Portland! I don't think you could go wrong, but on the Black History tour I learned more than I thought possible... I knew that there was surely Black History in Portland- we where a pretty logical stop in the underground railroad to Canada, but, Dugan really uncovered some really interesting characters you just don't hear much about. Dugan's approach to History is an incredibly character & narrative driven one. Very helpfully, he carries a binder with pictures, paintings & photographs, of the people he talks about, which helps one to picture them.

Response from Host

Mar 2022

Guests keep telling me that the images help everyone appreciate the amazing people from Portland's past, as well as to visualize important changes in the built environment around us on the tour. Assembling the images and doing the research was totally worth it to see the amazement in guests' faces when they hear these remarkable stories.

ahU8676FZ

Mar 2022

I enjoyed the tour. Recommended for those interested in history. I had a question the tour guide didn't know the answer to but he sent me an email after with details!

Response from Host

Mar 2022

I absolutely love nurturing curiosity and questions. I'm happy to follow up later with reading or film recommendations and to answer questions I didn't get to on the tour. Let me know if there's something else you want to know more about!