Custom Car, Motorcycle, Watercraft Appraisals in Lawrence, MA

Portland is the largest city in Maine, with a population of more than 68,400 people. It's also the capital city of the state, and serves as the seat of Cumberland County. The Greater Portland metropolitan area currently is home to more than 500,000 residents.

Since its founding in 1632 and its incorporation in 1786, Portland has experienced four devastating fires. This inspired the adoption of a city seal featuring a phoenix rising from the ashes, representing how the city has recovered each time and gone on to thrive. 

In the past, Portland's economy relied heavily on fishing, canneries, and manufacturing. Today, the city has a diversified economy that allows it to continue growing. The service sector and tourism now play major roles in the local economy. 

Different areas of the city offer residents and visitors plenty to do. The Old Port is known as a hotspot for nightlife, while also providing some of the best examples of 19th-century architecture to be found anywhere in the state. Fishing and commercial shipping continue to be major industries, with the Port of Portland serving as the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England.

Serving Lawrence, MA

Facts about Lawrence, MA

Lawrence is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, on the Merrimack River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,377, which had risen to an estimated 78,197 as of 2014. Surrounding communities include Methuen to the north, Andover to the southwest, and North Andover to the southeast. Lawrence and Salem are the county seats of Essex County. Lawrence is part of the Merrimack Valley.

Manufacturing products of the city include electronic equipment, textiles, footwear, paper products, computers, and foodstuffs. Lawrence was the residence of poet Robert Frost for his early school years; his essays and poems were first published in the Lawrence High School newspaper.

History

Immigration of foreign born workers to Lawrence largely ceased in 1921 with the passage of strict quotas against immigrants from the countries that had supplied the cheap, unskilled workers. Although many quotas were lifted after the Second World War, foreign immigration to Lawrence only picked up again in the early 1960s with Hispanic immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and other Latin American countries. Immigrants from Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, have also settled in Lawrence.

Indicative of immigration trends, several Catholic churches now conduct masses in two or more languages. St. Patrick's Church, a Catholic church in Lawrence and once an Irish bastion, has celebrated Spanish masses on Sundays since 1999. A mass in Vietnamese is also offered every other week. St. Mary's of the Assumption Parish is the largest Catholic parish in Lawrence by Mass attendance and number of registered parishioners. It has the largest multi-lingual congregation in the city and has been offering Spanish masses since the early 1990s.

Since the 1990s, increasing numbers of former Catholic churches, closed since the 1980s when their Irish or Italian congregations died out, have been bought by Hispanic evangelical churches.