Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – July 31, 1993

WINTERPORT – Town officials and representatives from surrounding communities will gather to consider a regional approach to recycling.

Town Manager Scott Tilton said so far officials in Hampden, Prospect, Frankfort and Searsport have expressed interest in considering a regional approach.

He said a guest speaker from the Maine Solid Waste Agency will attend the meeting and present various options the towns could consider. A regional approach to recycling could save all participating communities money.

In other town business, Tilton said the council finally approved the summer paving program. Work will begin soon on the North Road, a section of Coles Corner Road and a portion of the Monroe Road.

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BANGOR – Many facets of Acadia Hospital, Bangor’s year-old, acute-care facility for psychiatric and chemically dependent patients, have been phased in more quickly than expected. The exception is the 16-bed children’s unit, which will open Aug. 2, almost six months after the original target date.

As hospitals across the country realize, staff trained to work with children are perhaps the most difficult to find, especially psychiatrists.

“There’s not many in the country,” acknowledged Dr. David R. Hawkins Jr., who has moved from Cambridge, Mass., to become medical director of the child psychiatric unit at Acadia.

The program manager for the new unit is Gail Boggs, a registered nurse with experience at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

25 years ago – July 31, 1978

BREWER – For the second straight year, a Brewer woman has won the pie-baking contest sponsored by Bangor Tire Co.

Mrs. Linda Miller won a freezer and $50 gift certificate when she and two other finalists baked off their pies at the tire company. Judging the event were Brownie Schrumpf, a Bangor Daily News columnist, and Mrs. Kenneth Lovejoy of the county Extension service.

The other two finalists were were Mrs. Phyllis McAvoy of Orrington, who won second place and a $50 gift certificate, and Miss Laura Rowell of Bradford, who placed third and also won a $50 gift certificate.

The nine entrants baked off their pies during Thursday and Friday. The three finalists then made another pie for the Saturday test. All pies were baked on the tire company’s premises, and all had to be made “from scratch.”

They were judged on consistency, flavor, texture and appearance. Entries included blueberry, apple, strawberry-rhubarb, sourcream-filled and raspberry pies.

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BANGOR – Paintings of Maine native and Orono artist Dick McCrum will be on display at the Northern National Bank, 15 Main St. Bangor.

McCrum, a professor in the botany and plant pathology department at the University of Maine at Orono, is a virtual newcomer to the art field, having been inspired by the methods and style of Nancy Kominsky following a sabbatical leave in California in 1971.

For his paintings in oil media, he uses only a knife to obtain a sharp contrast and delineation of color.

Although his favorite medium is oil, he has expanded recently into the use of watercolor under the tutelage of Phil Brockway.

The subject matter of McCrum’s paintings seem to be chosen from the natural beauties of the American scene experienced in his travels, but he would like to devote more time to try to capture the variety of characters that make up the heritage blend of Americana.

50 years ago – July 31, 1953

BANGOR – A prediction that Bangor’s building construction costs this year will be “close” to $3,000,000 was made this week by Building Inspector Guy E. MacCrae.

He said that the estimated building costs for the first seven months of this year are “impressively higher than any other year’s total.”

So far this year, the estimated building cost of dwellings in the city is $2,616,600, according to MacCrae.

This year, MacCrae’s office has granted 309 dwelling permits, 259 being issued this month. In 1948, 98 permits for dwellings were granted.

This month’s total of 259 permits, with an estimated dwelling cost of $2,261,000, was largely due to the 250-unit Bangor Gardens homes development proposed for the Broadway-Kenduskeag Avenue area, MacCrae said.

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HAMPDEN – The old-fashioned flavor of Grandmother’s Day featured the 17th annual flower show of the Hampden Highlands Garden Club in the newly renovated, historic Harmony Hall on Kennebec Road.

Valuable antique furniture, trays and china were used in the various exhibits which included country church arrangements with white flowers in white containers.

The judges’ decision for the best displays of the day, however, went to the more modern table arrangements. First prize went to Mrs. Charles Sealand whose unusual arrangement, “Blueberry Pickers,” featured a boy and girl made of cucumbers, lettuce, carrots and faces of dried apples.

Mrs. Leslie H. Stanley was general chairman of the affair and the judges were Mrs. Kathleen Cowan of Brewer, Mrs. Clyde Lougee of Bangor and Mrs. Herbert Tracy of Ellsworth, who were entertained at luncheon by Mrs. Earl Spaulding.

The guest book was in the charge of Miss Maude Reed, a charter member of the club.

100 years ago – July 31, 1903

ORRINGTON – A new and important industry may come into existence in the near vicinity of Bangor soon, if certain preliminary plans now under way materialize.

During the last few weeks engineers have been investigating conditions at Mud Pond and McCurdy’s Pond, just over the Orrington line, with the purpose of ascertaining how much peat, and of what quality, could be readily obtained there.

These engineers represent, it is said, a company comprising wealthy Toronto men and at least one Bangor man.

It is believed that an immense amount, practically an inexhaustible supply, of fuel can be obtained from the 2,000 acres or more of the muddy, boggy ponds beyond Big Brewer Pond, and it is proposed to install machinery for the purpose of securing it.

It has been estimated that in the small area covered by the two ponds and adjacent bogs, there is no less than 20 million tons of peat. It has been gathering there for centuries and in many places is 35 feet deep.

Just how much it will cost per ton to dig the peat is not known, but it is believed that it will not be over 50 cents.

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Thursday morning the spider webs in the grass and the fresh earth around the tiny ant heaps set the despondent farmers to prophesying fair weather, and for a few hours the sun fairly blazed, but in the afternoon, the clouds crowded blackly over the sun, then burst into torrential rain. After the shower was over the streets seemed to smoke and the air grew suffocating with vapor, and soon another shower would follow. It’s a discouraging time for hay-makers.

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ORONO – Wednesday a very delicate but successful operation was performed by Dr. C.H. Bayard of Orono and Dr. Harry Butler of Bangor. L.O. Crafts of Brookton, Washington County, has a little 4-year-old daughter, who had had a serious throat trouble for a long time.

Hearing by chance of a successful operation which had been performed by the above doctors on an Orono child for a similar trouble, Mr. Crafts brought his child to Orono. Drs. Bayard and Butler were summoned, who after an examination, removed the child’s tonsils.

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BANGOR – When the doors of the Opera House are again thrown open, patrons of Bangor’s most popular playhouse will be greeted with numerous innovations and improvements.

Before the building, extending from the curbstone to the main entrance, a porte-cochere will be built above the sidewalk – an improvement which will be appreciated on rainy days. The 100 or more electric lights, now placed at the entrance, will in future blaze above the edge of the curbing.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin