City history revealed in ‘Vintage Postcards’ New book adds to series

BANGOR – Sure, you remember the old high school that’s now an apartment building on Harlow Street, but did you know that the original high school was across the way on Abbott Square before it was lost to the Great Bangor Fire of 1911?

Your memory goes back to Eastern Maine General Hospital, but can you tell which was the main building? And did you know that St. Joseph Hospital was once Paine Private Hospital on Center Street?

We can know – and see – these facts for ourselves thanks to “Bangor in Vintage Postcards,” Richard Shaw’s third installment in the Arcadia series of books about Bangor.

Shaw previously wrote “Bangor” and “Bangor: The Twentieth Century” for Arcadia so there is perhaps no one better to have culled through countless postcards of Bangor to pick out the best and then add bits of history to flesh them out.

Who knew that the old Windsor Hotel was named for the one in Montreal?

Older Bangor residents realize that the old Abraham Lincoln School is no more, but the Valentine School is still with us – it’s the Shaw House now.

Which of Charles Tefft’s bronze sculptures do you like best? Hannibal Hamlin or the veterans memorial titled Victory? The late James Vickery thought the River Drivers was far and away the best.

Good for you if you know the current City Hall was once the Post Office, but can you imagine that area without that building there? Before and after shots of “Post Office Square” certainly give one pause, with First Universalist Church in the background to give perspective.

Imagine meat markets on Pickering Square, and hay wagons where Key Plaza is now, the old Haymarket Square. Shaw has postcards of both.

The flood of 1976 seems not so long ago, but the Kenduskeag Stream overflowed its banks in 1923, as well. The Penobscot River also overflowed that year, Shaw points out, as it did in 1846 and 1902.

Rows of soldiers fill some of the postcards, even before World War I came along. That war saw 10 Bangor men killed in action, nine died of wounds and 13 of pneumonia.

Political postcards ranged from a neat missive for independent candidate Frank M. Douglas, running for sheriff, to Francis W. Hill, who signed his name in white penmanship across his photograph while running for state senate. As for Sheriff John K. Farrar, his re-election bid included a calendar for June 1928, the better to get voters to the polls.

Baseball players posed as a group for a postcard in 1907. The Bangor team played at Maplewood Park – now Bass Park.

Readers will certainly enjoy the chapter titled “A Stroll through Downtown,” which begins with a 1920s shot of Exchange Street, Union Station in the distance.

The Bijou Theater, the Bangor Daily News and the Penobscot Exchange Hotel are easily picked out.

A view of the intersection of Central, Hammond and Main streets discloses three modes of transportation – horse and wagon, trolley car and open touring car.

There is attention to retail, too, from the well-known Freese’s Department Store, which drew shoppers from miles around, to Curran & Griffin, the men’s clothing store located first on Central Street and later on Main Street.

The seven-story Morse-Oliver Building, once at Exchange and State streets, is shown both before and after the Great Bangor Fire of 1911. Sadly, there are enough postcards to justify an entire chapter on fires, including the one that took the original opera house in 1914.

A chapter on “Steeples and Stars of David” takes in churches and synagogues, including an interior shot of the old St. Mary’s Church.

And does Third Congregational Church ring a bell? Also known as Central Congregational, it was lost to the Great Bangor Fire – but, its pink granite was used during construction of part of the current All Souls Congregational Church.

Postcards from Bangor’s “outskirts” take in the airport, Mount Hope Cemetery, Pushaw Lake and Indian Island.

For those who already own Shaw’s first two volumes on Bangor, “Bangor in Vintage Postcards” is a must-have. For everyone else, it’s a great place to start.

“Bangor in Vintage Postcards,” published by Arcadia, is available in bookstores for $19.99. Richard Shaw will sign books from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 20, at the Bangor Museum and Center for History, 6 State St. Books will be available for purchase. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and noon-4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free.