The Stars Come Out In Portland, Maine
What the heck is this?
Or this?
Look up and you’ll see these things all over the place on the waterfront in Portland, Maine. Sometimes they are not even stars!
What’s going on? The answer is that these decorative metal pieces are not ornaments. They serve an important function, literally keeping many of our turn of the 20th century buildings here from falling apart. They are called star anchors (because they’re mostly stars) and they are part of a common building method used in the 19th century. These metal anchors are the end pieces of wrought-iron bars that run through the walls of buildings, bolted to interior masonry walls, or wooden crossbeams. The rods (known as tie rods) literally tie the exterior walls to the interior and prevent walls from buckling. To keep the tie rods from being pulled through the brick walls, you need star anchors. And, of course, they don’t have to be stars. Sometimes a utilitarian application will suffice.
Sometime in the 19th century, tie rods were added to buildings when an outer brick wall began to lean or buckle. In the latter case, the damage was already done, and adding a tie rod couldn’t pull the wall straight again, but it kept the wall from moving farther. In Portland, it was more common to use them in the original construction of our waterfront buildings.
Do they work? Does this look like a buckling wall to you? Look up, and see the stars in Portland Maine.
