10 years ago – Sept. 11, 1993

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

Work on the restoration of Hermon Historical Society’s one-room schoolhouse No. 5 is nearly complete thanks to the efforts of a work crew from the Charleston Correctional Center in Charleston.

The society has been restoring the town-owned building with funds raised from baked bean suppers, sales of strawberry shortcake at Hermon Fun Days, other events and donations from the public, reports Town Manager Kathryn Ruth.

According to Committee Chairman Robert Sedgeley in a recent report to the town council, workers from the Charleston Correctional Center were busy at the schoolhouse for two weeks. He estimated that society received from 200 to 240 hours of free labor.

A supervisor and four or five men worked on the building. They applied shingles, braced the inside of the building across the rafters and repainted the structure.

“They did a tremendous job,” said Marilyn Carter, president of the society, “and we are grateful for the volunteered time. We are a small organization and trying to get volunteers is difficult. What they did is pretty remarkable.”

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The Brewer Monument Committee, an offshoot of the former Brewer Centennial Committee, is planning to construct a new park and monuments at the end of Veterans Memorial Bridge to commemorate the city’s history.

City Planner Tom Kurth said the proposal has already been before the city planning board and the concept design has been approved. The idea of the new park was proposed by members of the original centennial committee in 1989, the city’s centennial.

Committee members selected artists Andreas Von Heune, a landscape architect from Woolwich, and Carole Hanson, a sculptor from Damariscotta, and asked them to work together.

Von Huene has designed a multilevel park where people could go and have a family picnic or just take a relaxing walk and enjoy the river, said committee member Donna Thornton.

Hanson will be commissioned to produce three carvings from bluestone, a hard durable native rock that will come from a local quarry.

25 years ago – Sept. 11, 1973

ORONO – From the New Orleans of “A Streetcar Named Desire” to the village in Russia of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Maine Masque audiences will travel far during the expanded 1973-74 theater season at the University of Maine at Orono.

“Our bill of plays this year is an exciting and challenging one,” said Dr. Arnold Colbath, director of the Maine Masque. “We’re moving from American playwriting at its finest on to English fantasy, the French Avant-garde and ending with one of the most popular musicals ever performed. The Masque is looking forward to sharing its excitement with our audiences as we launch our annual season ticket campaign.”

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ORONO – The Orono Town Council made the first of a number of planned changes to accommodate the town’s growing number of bicycle riders.

After tabling some proposals because of unclear wording or lack of specific details, the council voted to permit cyclists to ride on all sidewalks except those in the downtown area.

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BREWER – While a group of Brewer businessmen is trying to drum up public support for a multimillion dollar downtown shopping center, opponents of the project are launching their own informational campaign.

The newly formed committee will hold a public meeting to counter claims made by supporters of the shopping center complex.

The meeting will be moderated by city councilman Robert MacLeod, who was instrumental in organizing a petition drive that forced the city council to put the downtown development issue to the voters in referendum.

The Sept. 17 referendum will decide whether or not the city will spend two-thirds of a million dollars to build a 150-space parking lot and rebuild Center Street after private developers have substantially completed the $2 million shopping center, and found tenants for the various stores and offices in the building.

50 years ago – Sept. 11, 1953

BANGOR – Lovely Roxanne, star of TV and radio and cover girl “extraordinary and plenipotentiary,” who was the toast of European capitals for four weeks this spring, will again be the featured artist in the NEWS Pageant of Fashions for Fall at Bangor City Hall. Those who met and saw Roxanne last season found her to be an unusual girl. Not only does she have what it takes in the way of beauty and figure, but she has plenty of personality and brains.

Roxanne, who has been on TV on “Beat the Clock” for the past few years, is well-known to many TV viewers and is launching her own TV program, “Challenge the Girls,” with public participation. On this program will be Ann Anderson, a Russell Stewart model; Jean Williams, the tennis star; and Betty Woodburn, an actress and singer.

Bangor merchants have had their buyers in the New York markets this week and the latest fashions will be shown. There will be clothes for all types of women and all price ranges and millinery, handbags, scarves, furs, gloves and other accessories will be tied in with every costume.

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BANGOR – The only book ever dedicated to a railroad was launched Thursday evening when John Gould of Lisbon Falls was honored by the Bangor and Aroostook railroad at a publication party at the Tarratine club.

“The Fastest Hound Dog in the State of Maine,” dedicated to the Bangor and Aroostook railroad, is Mr. Gould’s newest book, a rib-tickling saga of a veritable Paul Bunyan among dogs who beat the crack Aroostook flyer and created a folk tale told on many a deacon seat.

John Gould, a typical Maine man by virtue of a normal preoccupation with farming, fishing, story-telling, horseshoe pitching and rabbit hunting, maintains that the story has been around a long time. It remained to him and to illustrator F. Wenderoth Saunders to get the rib-tickling yarn between the covers.

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ORONO – Five local citizens – one a housewife, her arms laden with two pans of freshly-cooked spuds – added zest to an otherwise colorless hearing on a proposed hike in water rates. Each trooped to the witness stand individually and aired his or her views on a proposed 64-percent water rate increase being sought by the Penobscot County Water company in the towns of Orono, Veazie and Ellsworth.

After sitting through the morning session when testimony was taken, Mrs. P.M. Seal took the witness stand with two pans of potatoes, which she said she had brought “to show the difference between those cooked in faucet water and those in spring water.”

Offering her exhibit for the view of the board members and attorneys, she said she found that spuds cooked in faucet water “had a brown scum around them,” while those cooked in spring water “came out nice and white.”

When asked by Attorney Merrill if she would be willing to pay a higher water rate if the company were to install a filter plant with purification facilities, Mrs. Seal said she would.

100 years ago – Sept. 11, 1903

BANGOR – Reuben Nowell of Chilliwach, B.C., returned to Bangor Saturday after an absence of 55 years. He was accompanied by his son, Victor, and will be the guest of his sister, Mrs. E.A. Green during his stay here.

Mr. Nowell left Bangor in 1848 in the schooner Eudora for California. The vessel was never heard from afterward and it was supposed that she was lost with all on board. A few weeks ago a man traveling through the provinces met Mr. Nowell and spoke of the resemblance which he held to people her in Maine, with whom the traveling man was acquainted. Mr. Nowell communicated with these people and found them to be his relatives.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin