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CONTENTS 02 50 YEARS OF THE PENOBSCOT THEATRE 10 PRESERVING HISTORY

AT THE THOMAS A. HILL HOUSE

14 DOWNTOWN BANGOR THEN & NOW 20 READ ALL ABOUT IT — BANGOR IN THE 1970S 22 CROWN OF THE QUEEN CITY: THE THOMAS HILL STANDPIPE 24 BANGOR THEN & NOW EDITOR’S NOTE: A special thank you to local historians Richard Shaw and Matt Bishop, as well as the Bangor Historical Society and Bangor Public Library.

Our editorial team is fortunate and grateful to have access to so many resources and willing experts. Thank you for helping make possible this nod to Bangor’s history and bright future.

BANGOR’S MAIN STREET, CIRCA 1968.

COURTESY OF EMILY BURNHAM / BDN FILE PHOTO

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 1

50 Years BANGOR Then & Now

50 Years of the Penobscot Theatre

By Judy Harrison

2 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

(Right) Past signs from the Bangor Opera House, current home to PTC and a landmark on Main Street since 1920.

the summer of 1973, while most of the nation was obsessed with the Watergate scandal, a Mount Desert Island theater group was giving birth to what would become the Penobscot Theatre Company.

PHOTO: LINDA COAN O’KRESIK / BDN FILE

s

IN

(Left) Penobscot Theatre’s first Bangor home.

George Vafiades and Louis Collier founded Acadia Repertory Theatre, which in 1974 began performing in Bangor between September and May in a former church hall. Both companies marked their 50th anniversaries in 2023. The Somesville troupe was forced to shut down the summer of 2020 because of the pandemic, so it’s not counting that year.

Technically, PTC did not exist until 1983, when it was formed as a not-for-profit to purchase Memorial Hall, the parish hall owned by the Unitarian Church, which is now the Brick Church. The church wanted to sell the building, but its charter required it be purchased by a nonprofit group, which Acadia Rep was not then.

PTC sold the building to Merrill Bank (now People’s United Bangor Bank) in 2004, seven years after it purchased the Bangor Opera House at 131 Main St., which today seats 330.

There have been lots of challenges and changes over the years, but both theaters hope to continue offering live performances for the next half-century. In the early years, PTC had a resident group of actors who performed in every production and worked to convert the parish hall into a 132-seat theater. Ken Stack, who served as artistic director from 1983 to 1989, was part of that group.

“We moved in [Memorial Hall] on Sept. 1, 1974, and opened our first production, George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Arms and the Man,’ on Sept. 12,” Stack said. “It was pretty amazing.”

Stack left the company in 1989. The next year, Vafiades went to Lewiston and founded the Public Theatre.

He was replaced by Joe Turner Cantu, who stayed just two years.

Mark Torres took over in 1992, when the resident acting company was dissolved in favor of a combination of local performers and out-of-state professionals.

“When I arrived in Bangor … the theater had few subscribers [211], lots of debt, a building which needed significant work, a 16-dimmer light board and about 12 lights,” he said. “The community was supportive and engaged. It was the wellspring to which I turned, time and again, for inspiration.” bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 3

BANGOR Then & Now In 1994, Mark Torres launched the Maine Shakespeare Festival. It performed outdoors on the Bangor Waterfront for nine years.

Scott RC Levy took over from Torres in 2005. He founded the Dramatic Academy, which produces several student shows a year. Levy also launched the Northern Writes New Play Festival.

Many advances took place under the leadership of Bari Newport, who joined the company in 2012. The interior of the theater

(Below) The Bangor Opera House on Main Street before it burned in a fire in 1914.

IMAGE COURTESY OF RICHARD SHAW

was painted, new seats installed, a house was purchased for out-oftown actors and the old fire house on Griffin Road was acquired for set and costume construction. Upgrades were made to the heating, cooling, and light systems, and the theater began leasing 51A Main St. as a second performance and Dramatic Academy space.

PTC faced its greatest challenge in March 2020, when the pandemic shut down theaters around the world. In 2020 and 2021, shows were recorded and streamed on the company’s website.

Jonathan Berry took over as artistic director in 2022, while the theater was still struggling to get its audience back in the seats. Theatergoers did not return in large numbers until “Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical” was performed to sold-out houses in June and July 2023 with new technology

allowing images to be projected onto the sets.

As that show opened, PTC launched the Stage Door, a bar in the former shoe shop next door. It has been a hit with theatergoers and a place where the community can gather for drinks, snacks, and to talk theater, according to executive director Jen Shepard.

PTC is recovering from the lack of audiences in the years following the pandemic, she said. This season, the company has more than 800 season subscribers, bringing it close to the 1,000 it had in 2019. About 60 percent of its income comes from ticket sales with additional income coming from grants and donations.

While many theaters around the country did not reopen after the pandemic, PTC is surviving, if not yet thriving.

“We learned that this place is not guaranteed,” Shepard said. “We have to fight for it every day, but that’s what it takes.”

50 YEARS of the Penobscot Theatre 1973

ACADIA REPERTORY THEATRE FOUNDED

1974

ACADIA REPERTORY PERFORMS IN BANGOR

1982 Acadia Repertory Theatre, a for-profit entity, is founded on Mount Desert Island

by George Vafiadis and Louis Collier.

Actors perform in an Acadia Repertory Theatre production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" in 1976.

4 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

The company begins performing in Memorial Hall, the parish house of the Unitarian Church in Bangor.

Ken Stack joins Acadia Rep as artistic director while Vafiades continues working as the producing director.

132

NUMBER OF SEATS IN MEMORIAL HALL

Meet DOMINICK VARNEY Dominick Varney may hold the record for the number of the Penobscot Theatre Company shows any one individual has been involved in over the past 25 years.

The Hampden Academy and University of Maine graduate has acted in or directed 53 shows since he first appeared at the Bangor Opera House in the musical “Sunday in the Park With George” in 1999.

Last season, Varney played chimney sweep Bert in “Mary Poppins.”

So far, he’s appeared in two shows for the theater’s 50th season: “Constellations” in February and “Living for Drag: Happy Holigays” in December. The sold-out Christmas show starred Varney as Priscilla Poppycocks, his drag alter ego.

Varney’s favorite shows were the musical “Forever Plaid” and “Shear Madness,” an improvisational show in which the audience decides which direction the plot should go.

“It was a different show every single time,” he said. “The script’s beginning and end were different each and every time. And to perform that was insane, exciting, and unlike anything I had ever done.”

Varney also has starred in and directed plays with the community theater group Winterport Open Stage.

(Above) Dominick Varney. PHOTO BY JENNIFER LYNN PHOTOGRAPHY (Right) Varney as Bert in “Mary Poppins.”

PHOTO BY BILL KUYKENDALL

$465,207

PURCHASE PRICE $160,000 OF MEMORIAL HALL PURCHASE PRICE IN TODAY’S OF MEMORIAL HALL DOLLARS IN THE 1980S

1983

1990

PENOBSCOT THEATRE COMPANY IS CREATED

1986

Penobscot Theatre Company is created as a nonprofit to purchase Memorial Hall.

$70,000

BUDGET FOR THE FIRST PTC SEASON

PTC begins producing musicals and holiday specials at the Bangor Opera House.

SHOWS BEGIN AT BANGOR OPERA HOUSE

330

NUMBER OF SEATS IN THE BANGOR OPERA HOUSE

1989

KEN STACK LEAVES

Ken Stack leaves PTC but continues as artistic director at Acadia Rep.

MORE LEADERSHIP CHANGES

Vafiades leaves PTC to found the Public Theatre in Lewiston.

Joe Turner Cantu is hired as artistic director.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 5

BANGOR Then & Now

A Sneak Peek

Backstage

A Look Behind the Curtain at the Penobscot Theatre

T

By Judy Harrison

he most significant changes during the Penobscot Theatre Company’s 50-season history have been behind the scenes, as technology has continued to advance over the past half-century.

When Mark Torres took over as artistic director in 1992, PTC had a 16-dimmer lightboard and about a dozen lights. Designers did most of their work on paper with inventory lists of set pieces, lights, costumes, and props kept in file cabinet drawers. Sets were constructed in rented space, which sometimes limited how large they could be.

In its 50th season, the company is digitized, though some software updates still are needed. Sets and costumes are made and stored in the Griffin Road Firehouse

Scenic & Costume Shop, which was purchased from the city in 2015.

That is where you can find production manager Ben Wetzel, technical director Zac Whitenack, costume designer Kevin Koski, and others at work. The former fire station also hosts apprentices for the season.

Whitenack described PTC’s tech side of the operation in the 104-year-old Bangor Opera House as “the new meeting the old.”

The “new” includes a lightboard purchased in 2016 for $6,800, but it’s considered to be older technology now. That same year, the theater spent $4,250 on LED lights for the stage to save on energy costs.

Last season, PTC spent $20,000 on two projectors that allowed them to cast

Continued on page 8

50 YEARS of the Penobscot Theatre 1992

Mark Torres is hired as artistic director.

1994

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL CREATED

PTC creates the Maine Shakespeare Festival performing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the Bangor Waterfront.

6 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

1997

PTC PURCHASES BANGOR OPERA HOUSE

2002

THE MAINE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL ENDS

$201,900

CITY OF BANGOR’S APPRAISAL OF THE BANGOR OPERA HOUSE WHEN PURCHASED IN 1997 *

* The purchase price was not made public.

2004 $384,194

APPRAISAL OF OPERA HOUSE IN TODAY’S DOLLARS

PTC SELLS MEMORIAL HALL TO A LOCAL BANK

Meet JULIE ARNOLD LISNET Julie Arnold Lisnet began performing with the Penobscot Theatre Company in 1993 in “Tales of the Lost Formicans.” Since then, she has appeared in 32 productions with the company and directed two, including “Crimes of the Heart,” which was the opening show for the company’s 50th season.

One of her favorite roles was in “Calendar Girls,” a play based on the film about women friends posing nude to raise money and awareness about breast cancer, which PTC produced in 2016. “[It’s memorable] for the obvious reason of having to take our clothes off, but more importantly the feedback the production garnered from women who had had breast cancer and mastectomies or women celebrating how liberating it was to see other women of all body types up there embracing who they were physically,” Lisnet said.

“It was very freeing for both the performers and the audience members.”

Lisnet, along with other local actors, founded Ten Bucks Theatre Company in 2001, now housed in the Bangor Mall. Each summer, the group performs outside at Indian Trail Park in Brewer and at Fort Knox in Prospect. Lisnet has directed and starred under the stars in many plays by William Shakespeare.

(Above) Julie Arnold Lisnet. PHOTO BY JASON PAIGE SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY (Left) Ben Layman, Julie Lisnet (center), and Jennifer Snow pose in the Ten Bucks Theater Company's new performance space in the Bangor Mall. BDN FILE PHOTO

25

NUMBER OF CURRENT PTC EMPLOYEES (17 FULL TIME, 8 PART TIME)

A student in PTC’s summer program rehearses for “Transformer Tales: Stories of the Dawnland” in 2016.

350

NUMBER OF PRODUCTIONS PTC HAS DONE THROUGH ITS 50 SEASONS

Shows begin to run for three weekends instead of two.

2009

MORE SHOWS ADDED

2007 2005 Scott RC Levy is hired as artistic director.

The education program becomes the Dramatic Academy under the leadership of Joye Cook-Levy, and the Opera House facade is renovated.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 7

BANGOR Then & Now

(Above) “August: Osage County featured a 3-story house, one of the largest sets in PTC’s history. BDN FILE PHOTO (Below) Mary Poppins (Stephanie Bacastow) and cast.

PHOTO BY BILL KUYKENDALL

images on the set. It’s an additional design element that gained popularity on Broadway around 2016.

PTC first used projections to great effect in “Mary Poppins: The Broadway Musical” to create outdoor and rooftop scenes. Projections also were used in “Constellations” to illustrate starlit skies and in the current production of “My Story is Gluskabe,” a play based on the Penobscot Nation’s origin stories.

The “old” is the Opera House itself, and its system of rigging ropes run on pulleys tied to sandbags rather than the cables used in steel counterweight or motorized rigging systems in more modern theaters. That puts PTC in a small group of theaters known as “hemp houses,” because in the early days the ropes were made of hemp. Now they are synthetic.

The storage space in the Firehouse allows set pieces such as platforms, windows, doors, cabinets, sinks, and appliances to be used over and over again. The kitchen cabinets used in the 2020 production of “Safety Net,” cut short by the pandemic, were used in the 50th season opener “Crimes of the Heart” in September.

PTC also loans out and borrows from other professional and community groups. Just recently, the company needed a dentist chair for this summer’s musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” so the production staff contacted the Waterville Opera House about borrowing the one used recently in its production only to learn the chair was still in Bangor as John Bapst Memorial High School had borrowed it last.

Keeping up with the evolving technology in the theater world is challenging, but it’s exciting when it arrives, according to Wetzel. The Greater Bangor business community has been generous with donations of materials and discounts on purchases, he said.

Wetzel said that for all of the challenges the design and construction crews face, opening nights make it all worthwhile.

“Seeing how an audience reacts to a show on opening night makes all the work worth it,” he said.

50 YEARS of the Penobscot Theatre 2012

NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The proscenium (the part of the stage in front of the curtain) is painted gold.

2015

SCENIC & COSTUME SHOP ADDED

5

2013 Bari Newport becomes the artistic director.

8 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

NUMBER OF PROPERTIES PTC OWNS AND LEASES IN BANGOR The Firehouse Scenic & Costume Shop on Griffin Road is purchased.

Remaining Shows in

IN PTC’S 50TH SEASON “My Story Is Gluskabe” Now through March 17

“Mr. Burns: A PostElectric Play” April 18 - May 5

“Little Shop of Horrors” June 13 – July 14 For more information, read What’s Happening on page 8 of the flipside of this magazine, visit penobscottheatre.org, or call 207-942-3333.

Help Support the PENOBSCOT THEATRE

Want to ensure the theatre is around for another 50 years and beyond? Here’s how you can help...

Make a donation to Penobscot Theatre Company to support the employment of local and visiting artists, the full-time staff of 17, classes for kids and adults, maintenance of the historic building and, perhaps most importantly, the production of amazing shows that bring the entire community together. To donate, visit penobscottheatre.org/donate.

PHOTOS: (BERRY) LINDA COAN O’KRESIK; (BAR) EMILY BURNHAM / BDN FILE

2020 2017

MORE ADDITIONS & UPGRADES

PTC purchases a house for visiting actors, installs new seats in the Opera House, and leases 51A Main St. as a second performance and education space.

2023

COVID HITS

The COVID-19 pandemic shutters theaters around the world as PTC pivots to a digital season.

2022

50 YEARS

NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Jonathan Berry is hired as artistic director, and founder Vafiades dies.

PTC opens a bar, The Stage Door, next door to the Opera House and launches its 50th season.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 9

BANGOR Then & Now

Preserving Bangor Landmark in Need of Repair

By Wanda Curtis

HISTORY

THE

One of Bangor’s most important historical monuments is the Thomas A. Hill House, which houses Bangor Historical Society (BHS) offices and acts as their exhibit and function space.

Former Bangor attorney/banker Thomas Adam Hill commissioned architect Richard Upjohn to design and build the home. Upjohn also designed Bangor’s Isaac Farrar Mansion and the original St. John’s Episcopal Church,which burned during the Great Fire of 1911.

He later became well known for designing Trinity Church in New York City.

According to BHS museum’s Curator/Operations Manager Matthew Bishop, the Thomas A. Hill House was completed in 1835. He said former Bangor Mayor Samuel S. Dale purchased the home in 1845 and resided there with his wife Matilda Dale and their two children for a number of years. Dale once hosted former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in the beautiful home. In 1942, the Sons of Union Veterans purchased the home and named it the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial, Bishop said. The BHS was allowed to use the home in 1952, and it was deeded to them in 1974. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

10 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

(Above left) An image of the Thomas A. Hill House with its original metal fence, taken sometime in the early 20th century.

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BANGOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY & BDN FILE

Thomas A. Hill House is not only home to the Bangor Historical Society and their museum — it’s also their largest historical object.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 11

BANGOR Then & Now

The sword Joshua Chamberlain carried at Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettsburg is on display at the Thomas A. Hill House Museum in Bangor.

(Below) A portrait of Samuel Dale, the mayor of Bangor in the mid-1800’s — and whose ghost is said to haunt the Thomas A. Hill House.

Bishop said the Greek Revival style home has several very unique features. It’s a five-bay central hall house with an original brick ell on the side and is encircled on three sides by a portico paved with granite slabs. Dale combined the two rooms to the right of the front hallway into a double parlor separated by an archway supported by Corinthian columns. He later replaced the original Greek Revival stairway with a straight-run Italian-style stairway.

He also replaced the single-paneled front door with double doors that featured etched panels and solid silver finials on the hinges. The original home had a cast-iron picket fence with an iron gate on top of a granite wall surrounding the house. There was also a gazebo and flower gardens.

Valuable Artifacts Inside the Museum The BHS Collections, inside the museum, include a large number of pictures, paintings, clothing, and research materials which can be viewed by the public when the museum reopens in the spring and/or by appointment. Some of the most notable are a sword carried by General Joshua Chamberlain at the Battle of Gettysburg, an extensive collection of uniforms and clothing from the Civil War era, a Gothic style grandfather clock made in Liverpool, England, and portraits of well-known Bangor residents.

Major Repairs Needed

More historical items on display inside the Thomas A. Hill House Museum.

12 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

The Hill House is in need of significant repairs. BHS has been raising funds during the past year to replace the ornamental fence on the granite walls along High and Union streets and install chain-link fencing along the property line and across the bank. BHS was awarded $60,000 from the City of Bangor through its CDBG grant for the $70,000 fencing project. They are hoping to rehabilitate the granite wall and restore the fence to bring back the property's historic presence, control traffic flow around the property, and secure the property.

The three-sided portico is also in need of immediate repair. An engineering study, funded by the Belvedere Historic Preservation, revealed the foundation under the portico has been severely damaged by Maine’s winter frost. The current condition of the portico is a threat to the structural stability of the Hill House. Necessary restorations would include moving the granite slabs to rebuild the foundation beneath those, as well as removing and restoring the columns. The estimated cost of that project last year was $350,000. BHS has determined they can do the project in phases to enable them to raise funds over several years. As of early 2024, they have raised $51,500 and will receive $25,000 from a challenge grant if they can raise another $18,500. Their goal is to raise at least another $120,000 so that they can begin working on two sides next spring.

You can learn more about restoration efforts and how to donate to the cause at bangorhistoricalsociety.org.

Beal University: THEN & NOW

We’ve seen a few changes since 1891.

1912, The Beal School of Shorthand

When Mary E. Beal and partners founded Bangor Business

College in October of 1891, who could have predicted the changes that awaited the institution?

Bangor Business College opened then with fewer than 25 students, on the second floor of the YMCA building and taught banking, finance, accounting, and shorthand. By 1892, the student body exceeded 100, prompting the relocation of the Shorthand and Typing Department to the Exchange Street Block. In 1903 Mary Beal established it as Miss Beal’s School of Shorthand and Typing.

Francis G. Lee purchased the school In 1922 incorporating it as Beal College of Commerce. It evolved into Beal College School of Business by 1929 and further into Beal Business College by 1941, offering two-year degree programs. In 1968, Beal College gained the authority to confer the Associate Degree of Science and achieved accreditation as a junior college of business in 1970. The Evening Division was established in 1971, catering to working adults, and the modular system was introduced in 1985.

The campus relocated twice, first to 629 Main Street in 1972 and then to 99 Farm Road in Bangor in 2004.

The 125th-anniversary celebration in 2016 marked Beal College's century of service. Online classes were introduced in 2017, enhancing accessibility. In 2018, a pre-licensure Nursing program addressed the nursing shortage, and Bachelor’s degrees in healthcare and medical fields were added in 2019. In 2020, Master’s degrees in Nursing and Business Administration (MBA) were introduced.

Then in December of 2020, Beal College became Beal University, reflecting its comprehensive academic offerings and commitment to serving students within Maine and beyond.

It is interesting to reflect on the technological and societal changes since 1941, Beal’s 50th anniversary: Technology: • 1941: Manual processes, limited data utilization • 2024: Technology-driven efficiency, data analytics, automation, and AI integration.

Health Information: • 1941: Paper-based records, limited accessibility.

• 2024: Electronic Health Records (EHR), data interoperability, telemedicine.

Equipment: • 1941: Basic tools, analog equipment.

• 2024: Advanced machinery, robotics, computerized systems in all fields.

Nursing: • 1941: Basic patient care, limited specialization.

• 2024: Specialized nursing roles, technologyassisted care, holistic approach.

Business Administration: • 1941: Emphasis on traditional management.

• 2024: Technology-driven, focus on innovation and global markets.

Addiction Counseling: • 1941: Limited understanding, moral-based approaches.

• 2024: Evidence-based treatments, neuroscience-informed counseling.

Accounting: • 1941: Manual bookkeeping, limited data analysis.

• 2024: Automated accounting systems, data analytics, and AI-driven financial insights.

Human Resources: • 1941: Personnel management, administrative functions.

• 2024: Strategic HR, employee engagement, technology-driven recruitment.

Health Science: • 1941: Basic healthcare, limited specialization.

• 2024: Advanced medical technologies, specialized fields, genomics, and personalized medicine.

1941, Beal Business College

2024, Beal University

Clinical Mental Health: • 1941: Stigma, psychoanalysis dominant.

• 2024: Holistic care, diverse therapeutic approaches, reduced stigma.

Cannabis Science: • 1941: Limited research, legal restrictions.

• 2024: Research expansion, medical applications, changing legal landscape.

Yet one thing has remained the same.

Welding Technology: • 1941: Manual welding techniques, basic equipment.

• 2024: Advanced welding technologies, robotics, computerized control systems.

Today Beal University offers 27 diploma and degree programs across 6 fields of study.

You learn in an accelerated format, mostly online, with flexible schedules to help you finish faster and get you to the future you want sooner.

Technologies and programs have changed, yet one thing has remained steadfast: Beal University’s commitment to educate and prepare students for in-demand career fields.

Learn more about the 27 diploma and degree programs currently offered at Beal University by visiting www.beal.edu or call 207-307-3900.

Beal is steadfast in its commitment to help you reach your career goals.

www.beal.edu

BANGOR Then & Now

DOWNTOWN

BANGOR Then & Now 14 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

Broad Street in downtown Bangor, shown at left in 1965 before Urban Renewal, and in 2020 at right.

From logging hamlet to cultural center, downtown Bangor continues to evolve

PHOTOS: (LEFT) BDN PHOTO, COURTESY OF RICHARD SHAW; (RIGHT) BDN FILE PHOTO; (LOGGERS) COURTESY OF THE BANGOR PUBLIC LIBRARY

TIMBER!

By Joanna O’Leary

If one had to summarize the vibe of early downtown Bangor in the briefest of terms, such would be the descriptor.

Log drivers on the Penobscot River.

The name of the game was “wood.” To survive in Bangor, residents had to focus — quite literally — on seeing the forest through the trees. But how did this once-humble logging hamlet grow to be Maine’s third-largest municipality, the illustrious seat of Penobscot County, and a locus of diverse arts and culture? The journey to becoming the “Queen City” was replete with trials and triumphs, competitions and conflicts (some of which continue to this day), as well as innovation and intrigue.

What we now know as Bangor began when European colonizers arrived around 1768 and established the Conduskeag Plantation at the intersection of the shores of the Kenduskeag and Penobscot rivers.

It should be noted there were settlements that predated this, but the indigenous peoples who frequented the area were mostly nomadic.

Robust surrounding woodlands led sawmills to naturally become the earliest industries for the Europeans, with the waterfront functioning as a transit port for ships loaded with lumber harvested from the north Maine woods over the winter and then floated down the Penobscot bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 15

BANGOR Then & Now

every spring. The mood was energetic and hopeful, but the atmosphere was not always pleasant: Heavy traffic from the motley crew of locals, sailors, fishermen, and lumbermen around the waterfront combined with the logging refuse often meant unpleasant odors and less-than-sanitary conditions.

It was this land adjacent to the water that eventually became the downtown, an economic and social evolution facilitated by the construction of sawmills along the Penobscot River from Old Town to Bangor. At the peak of the logging industry there were approximately 300 sawmills that drew not only more business to the nascent downtown but a growing civilian population of workers and their families.

Commercial and residential real estate in the form of shops and living spaces gradually expanded to serve the needs of the burgeoning transplant community. By the turn of the 20th century, downtown Bangor had become a service, shopping, and socializing destination for Mainers from more rural parts of the state.

Downtown’s steady expansion, however, came to a terrifying halt on Sunday, April 30, 1911. A fire in a hayshed on the Kenduskeag near where the stream flows into the Penobscot was fueled by strong dry spring winds that then carried the embers in the direction of the center of downtown Bangor. What began as a small fire

Bangor Public Library and the Bangor Historical Society in its upper floors. Perhaps one of the most painful losses of the Great Fire was the first consecrated synagogue in the state’s history. The silver lining on this dark cloud was the human casualty factor.

The fire claimed only two lives: a firefighter and a man from Brewer who became entangled in electrical wiring while crossing a bridge.

Remarkably, the effects of the fire proved relatively ephemeral, and the setback seemed in some ways only to galvanize the community. Downtown was reconstructed fairly quickly, though with the majority of new structures built between 1911 and 1915 on the fresh ground of the eastern side of the Kenduskeag.

The greatest challenge to the integrity of downtown in the course of the 20th century was not literal but metaphorical heat from the desires of developers during the 1960s and 1970s who sought to freshen up the look and feel of what some felt was an antiquated city space. Denizens are still divided as to whether these innovations

By the turn of the 20th century, downtown Bangor had become a service, shopping, and socializing destination for Mainers from more rural parts of the state.

16 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

soon transformed into a conflagration that would burn for about 24 hours, razing almost the entire downtown and eradicating 267 homes and 100 businesses. Notable landmarks destroyed during the 1911 fire included the post office, customs house, high school, six churches, and a building on State Street that would be the flagship branch of Bangor Savings Bank, which at the time also held the collections of the

PHOTOS: (LEFT) NORA EMERSON; (RIGHT) BDN PHOTO, COURTESY OF RICHARD SHAW

The Kenduskeag Stream running through downtown Bangor today and (at right) circa 1967.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 17

Summer shoppers in downtown Bangor circa 1964 and (below) today.

18 / BANGOR THEN & NOW 2024

were necessary, economically viable in the long term, and/or aesthetically pleasing.

According to local historian Matthew Bishop, the urban renewal process “drastically” altered downtown Bangor.

“We lost many great buildings that so many people hold near and dear to their hearts,” Bishop said. “Union Station and the old Bangor City Hall are two of the most well-known buildings that survived the fire of 1911 but would be lost to urban renewal.”

Gone also were many of the buildings on the banks of the Kenduskeag that were rebuilt after the fire.

In the decades that followed, Bangor as a whole continued to grow via an influx of peoples from other parts of the state, country, and world, including immigrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Downtown, in turn, diversified with a flush of new businesses, both locally owned as well as chain retail and service shops. Today the landscape of downtown Bangor is delightfully eclectic.

While many of the “old” neighborhoods and business and entertainment enclaves such as Broadway, Little City, Fairmount Park, Main Street, and the High Street Historic District remain and retain much of their original character, other sections continue to experience regular facelifts and transitions, as new organizations put down roots. Local gourmands also increasingly flock to downtown Bangor for its restaurants, food trucks, and eating pop-ups, which now transcend the Western meat-and-potato fare to include Thai, South Asian, Jamaican, Mediterranean, and more.

Perhaps one of the most exciting and most overdue “new” (extreme irony noted) coming attractions is the Wabanaki Youth & Cultural Center, which will be designed to be a gathering place for indigenous youths with a mission of promoting and preserving Wabanaki heritage. The Center will focus on mentoring and education and will have novel features, such as a rock-climbing wall to represent Katahdin, a mountain sacred to Wabanaki tribes in Baxter State Park.

Such welcome additions to downtown will join other iconic landmarks such as the Paul Bunyan statue, Stephen King’s house, and the Thomas Hill Standpipe. These sites in part define our town, but what makes Bangor, well, Bangor, is its people: resilient, hearty, and justifiably proud of the place they call home.

PHOTOS: (TOP) BDN PHOTO, COURTESY OF RICHARD SHAW; (BOTTOM) NORA EMERSON

BANGOR Then & Now

A brief history of the

bangor symphony orchestra The

Bangor Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1896, making the BSO one of the oldest continuously operating orchestras in the U.S. The Symphony owes its start to Abbie N. Garland, a popular Bangor piano teacher and composer, who — at the age of 44 — decided her town needed a symphony orchestra.

The first year, she managed the organization with the help of Symphony Conductor Horace Mann Pullen. The second year, she recruited musicians, and the third year, she sponsored the Symphony’s subscription sale. She also worked tirelessly to educate the public about Symphonic music and to create enthusiasm for unfamiliar pieces.

The Symphony played its first concert on Nov. 2, 1896 in Bangor City Hall. Horace Mann Pullen conducted the 16-member orchestra in a program featuring Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony.

Throughout its history, the Bangor Symphony Orchestra has continually grown artistically while retaining its community focus. Young People’s Concerts were first offered in 1909, and the Maine High School Concerto Competition was first held in 1980 to nurture local talent.

Today, the Symphony is led by Grammy Award-winning Music Director and Conductor Lucas Richman. Mainstage programs include a performance series at the Collins Center for the Arts, with five Masterworks Concerts, The Nutcracker with the Robinson Ballet, and annual Young People’s Concerts. Educational and community programming includes the Maine High School Concerto Competition, the Dr. Maurice P. King & Constance K. Barnes Master Class, the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestras, a Music & Wellness Program at area hospitals, and a rich variety of initiatives at the Bangor Arts Exchange.

bangorsymphony.org 207.942.5555

BANGOR Then & Now

Read All About It

BANGOR IN THE 70S

By Judy Harrison

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SHE

may not have grown up in Bangor, but over the past nearly two decades of living and working in the Queen City Emily Stoddard Burnham has become an expert on its history.

Now, the Bangor Daily News reporter has compiled a book full of photographs about the transformation the city underwent in the 1970s following urban renewal.

“Downtown, Up River: Bangor in the 1970s” was published in November by Islandport Press. The book, which is chock full of black-and-white photos of the city, is divided into four sections: People, Places, Work and Fun. Each category includes pictures that will be familiar to Bangor natives who came of age half a century ago and a surprise to many transplants who moved to Maine after that. The photos of Bangor before the urban renewal program tore down or

ripped up more than 100 acres of buildings and streets are as compelling as the locals’ memories of that transformation.

In the People section, there’s a young William Cohen campaigning for Congress in 1972 and women getting their hair curled and teased in the latest fashion. There are streets lined with tenements that no longer exist and Christmas shoppers flooding downtown department stores and restaurants now shuttered in the Places section.

Other photos show people at work in restaurants, on construction sites, car dealerships, and City Hall. Fun in Bangor back then included “oompa”-ing at the annual Greek Ball, splashing in Dakin Pool,

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF EMILY STODDARD BURNHAM & THE BANGOR DAILY NEWS

Dig out your platform shoes for a stroll through 1970s Bangor in this new book from BDN reporter Emily Stoddard Burnham

(Above left) Author Emily Stoddard Burnham.

(Others) Burnham’s book includes a wide variety of Bangor Daily News images from the 1970s, highlighting Bangor’s people, places, work, and fun throughout the decade.

dancing at The Bounty Tavern, performing with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at Peakes Auditorium and, of course, attending the basketball tourney in February.

Burnham grew up in Searsport, a coastal community about an hour southeast of Bangor. In her teenage years, a trip to the Bangor Mall and the stores that sprouted up around it, was an adventure that did not include a stop downtown.

“To me, Bangor was a series of chain restaurants and chain stores, not ‘a star on the edge of the night,’ as [Henry David] Thoreau called it when he visited in the 1840s,” she wrote in the prologue for the book. “In his day, Bangor was the last stop before the vast expanse of the north woods: a frontier town with the cultural trappings of a much larger city.”

A couple of fortuitous events two years ago led to the book’s publication, Burnham said.

Islandport Press, headquartered in Yarmouth, reached out to her after the success of John Duncan’s “Take It Easy: Portland in the 1970s,” which was published in October 2021. That book featured blackand-white photographs Duncan himself took in the 1970s as Maine’s largest city was experiencing many of the same transitions as Bangor — the impact of urban renewal, abandonment of the downtown for the mall, and a generational change in leadership and societal changes from antiwar activism to feminism to bell bottoms and miniskirts that left the old guard reeling from too much change too fast.

About the same time the publishing firm reached out to Burnham. The Bangor Daily News, with assistance from staff at the Bangor Public Library, was digitizing its archive of photos from the 1970s taken by its many photographers. In the spring of 2022, Burnham went to work culling

through tens of thousands of negatives, which was no easy task. There is a catalog of sorts, but it is not specific.

“For example, there will be a category for City of Bangor that is photos of governmental and municipal things,” she said. “There’s towns and cities with a ‘B’ for Bangor, and those are feature photos.

Then, there’s businesses or schools. There’s no one place to look for ‘everything Bangor,’ because the negatives are in 15, 20, or 30 different categories.

“It’s a Rosetta stone, and I’m one of the very few people who can read it, and that’s just from years of working where I work and doing what I do,” she added.

Readers of “Downtown, Up River” are grateful for that.

“Downtown, Up River: Bangor in the 1970s” is available at local bookstores and at islandportpress.com for $24.95. bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 21

BANGOR Then & Now

THE CROWN of the Queen City Climb the steps of Bangor’s famed Thomas Hill Standpipe

THE

By Jodi Hersey

According to bangorwater.org, the standpipe, located on Thomas Hill Road, was built back in 1897 to provide water storage to fight fires and regulate water pressure for the city. About 50 years later, the Bangor Water District assumed ownership of the standpipe in 1957.

“The standpipe is an iconic Bangor building because it is so visible in our skyline both during the day and at night,” said Matt Bishop, curator and operations manager for the Bangor Historical Society. “At night, when lit, it is the crown of the Queen City. And during the day, you can see it from all over.”

The land the standpipe sits on was originally owned by brothers James and Charles Thomas, according to bangorinfo.com. James M. Davis of Bangor, known for building the Bangor Auditorium, set up a portable sawmill at the standpipe location. In just six months, 22 men built the standpipe’s shell. Davis chose hard pine and 220,000 cedar shingles to protect the structure, which holds more than 1 million gallons of water. Between the tank and the wooden structure is a winding staircase of 100 steps that leads to a promenade deck that is open to the public four times a year.

“It is a joy when it is open to see the area from the unique vantage point. You do get a different view each season you are up there,” Bishop said. “I have had the opportunity to be in many tall Bangor buildings and see the tops of Bangor buildings, and it is an angle you cannot always see. It is great that, with the standpipe, anyone willing [or able] to make the trek up the stairs can see the tops of so many buildings.”

Annette Lee of Bangor has been to the standpipe many times.

“Our family loves visiting the standpipe and the sense of adventure it brings,” Lee said.

“Making it to the top and peeking through the cracks to try and see the inside and finding various landmarks are what we enjoy most.”

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PHOTOS: JODI HERSEY & BDN FILE

Thomas Hill Standpipe is one of Bangor’s most recognizable landmarks, and at 127 years old, it is still turning heads today.

Plan Your 2024 Visit to the Thomas Hill Standpipe Bangor Water’s Thomas Hill Standpipe is located on Thomas Hill Road.

The Thomas Hill Standpipe is open to the public for tours four times a year. Access during tours is from Union Street only.

On a clear day from the promenade deck it is said that visitors can spot Mount Katahdin to the north and Camden Hills to the southeast.

However, there have been times when the standpipe was closed to the public. Back in 1940, an 11-year-old boy was killed when he fell while climbing on beams under the stairway, according to bangorwater.org. Then during WWII, the Army asked the city to camouflage the public attraction out of concern enemy aircraft would use the landmark for guidance if they attempted to locate what would later become Dow Air Force Base, located a few miles away. The city obliged and painted the previously gray standpipe an olive drab and turned off the lights that encircled the banister atop the structure’s roof, according to bangorinfo.org. At the end of the war, the city painted the structure white and turned the lights back on.

Bangor Water reports the exterior of the standpipe was repainted in 2013 for $160,000. The cost to paint the standpipe in 1900 was $375. Then in 2014, the department replaced the original 1912 exterior light fixtures and bulbs with new LED units.

The Thomas Hill Standpipe is on the National Register of Historical Places and is an American Water Works Landmark, a proud distinction displayed on a stone marker outside of the standpipe.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024 • 3 – 6 p.m Wednesday, July 17, 2024 • 4 – 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024 • 3 – 6 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 • 3 – 6 p.m.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 23

BANGOR Then & Now

BANGOR Then & Now Old Bangor High School The old high school at 183 Harlow St. closed its doors to students after a new building at 885 Broadway opened in 1964. But that wasn’t the end of the story for the buff brick landmark that was completed in 1913, following the burning of the old school in Abbott Square on April 30, 1911. The school department used space there for offices before the entire property was repurposed into 45 affordable housing units. A prized apartment was the first-floor former principal’s office. In 2021, Community Housing of Maine announced that it would improve the property with 66 modern housing apartments. So, the old schoolhouse, built to complement the public library next door, lives on as a convenient place to live and relax.

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A side-by-side look at how Bangor landmarks have changed over the years Captions and Photos Courtesy of Richard Shaw

Stephen King House Few houses in New England attract as many visitors from around the world as the red Victorian mansion at 47 West Broadway. Bestselling horror writer Stephen King and his wife, Tabitha, purchased the property in 1980 and improved it in an appropriately ghoulish fashion. William Arnold, a local merchant, built the mansion in 1858 and reportedly lost it by century’s end after spending a fortune on renovations. In 2019, the Kings announced that they would donate the house as a writers’ retreat and manuscript archive.

Main Street From its earliest years, Bangor’s heart has been on Main Street.

While its array of businesses has evolved over the years, and outlet malls have changed buyers’ habits, shoppers’ dedication to downtown has never waned.

The vintage 1964 photo shows cars double parked, an allowable practice back then, while customers dropped by Freese’s Department Store, at right.

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 25

BANGOR Then & Now Old City Hall After the old City Hall was demolished in 1969 in a federal Urban Renewal project, the corner of Hammond and Columbia streets was changed forever. The landmark was built to last 100 years, but its tight location and needed improvements spelled doom for the 1894 municipal nerve center, which moved to 73 Harlow St. It once housed a 1,500-seat auditorium and most city services, including the police department and jail, city clerk, treasury, and public health. Today, a two-tiered parking lot sits on the site. The vintage photo, taken in the early 1960s, shows the former Merrill Trust Company, at left, now home to the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, and beyond that, the 1859 Wheelwright Block, rented by Mexicali Blues.

The wooden block to the right, now gone, housed a barber shop, billiard parlor, and picture and gift shop.

Pickering Square

PHOTO COURTESY BANGOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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Pickering Square is downtown’s largest open public space. Named for merchant George W. Pickering, the square was once a bustling marketplace. Dating to the 19th century, and stretching well into the 20th century, merchants would drive their meat and poultry wagons to this location and sell what they had until it was gone.

The square’s appearance changed by the mid-20th century, when parking meters replaced food wagons. Movies were later shown in the brick space, which now boasts a parking garage, and the Bangor Band performed there. In recent years, public funding helped build a Community Connector transit hub on the site.

Paul Bunyan Standing 31 feet tall and weighing 3,700 pounds, the Paul Bunyan statue on Main Street has come to personify Bangor’s lumbering past and tourist-based present. Artist J. Normand Martin designed the landmark in 1959 to draw attention to the city’s 125th anniversary celebration. Crafted of fiberglass and chicken wire, it was thought by some to be a temporary gimmick, but it has outlasted the elements and its critics to become a permanent part of the community’s landscape.

Country, Celtic, and a Beast!

The Gracie Theatre has Something for Everyone

Sunday, March 10 | 7 PM

Sunday, March 17 | 3 PM

Saturday, April 6 | 1 & 4 PM

3

4

bangordailynews.com BANGOR DAILY NEWS / 27

The view down State Street taken in the late 1880s, reveals the distant spires of Hammond Street Congregational and Grace Methodist churches, still standing but with rebuilt architecture. The Great Fire of April 30, 1911, changed the city’s landscape, including the construction of the Bangor Savings Bank and Exchange Building, at lower left in the modern photo.

Old Courthouse The Penobscot County Courthouse, located at 97 Hammond St., was opened in 1905. Its modern design and prominence at the corner of Hammond and Court streets made it one of Maine’s most impressive public buildings.

Wilfred Mansur, a local designer of school houses and other buildings, was hired to design the landmark. Although no courtrooms are housed there today, it does contain probate and deeds registries and county commissioners’ offices.

An earlier courthouse on this site witnessed many court trials, some of which were covered nationally, and contained a Paul Revere bell.

PAST & PRESENT

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PAST & PRESENT

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BANGOR Then & Now

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Pick up Bangor historian Richard Shaw’s book, “Bangor, Past & Present,” from Arcadia Publishing. The book offers a collection of photos, featuring local landmarks through the years.

R ichard R. Shaw 10/18/22 12:52 PM

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