NEW HOME FOR OLD BANGOR

A generous gift of the old Merchants Bank Building will give the Bangor Museum and Center for History a more prominent and spacious new home for the longtime organization, and it gives the region’s residents another reason for visiting the city’s downtown. The Bangor region, like so many in Maine, has a long and interesting history; the former bank will showcase it properly.

The last business to occupy the 170-year-old building was Cormier’s clothing store for men, where its curving front windows along Broad Street displayed shirts and suits, ties and hats. Toward the back of the store sat the massive vault, displaying the original intention of the building.

Cormier’s closed in 2000 and the building had remained empty until its owners, Sally and Bill Arata of Veazie, donated it to the museum. The re-use may take many months,

but where there was haberdashery there soon will be history – the pictures, examples of industry, materiel of war and even, again, clothing, though of an historic nature.

The museum, for a long time called the Bangor Historical Society, has been a part of Bangor since the 1860s, and its Thomas Hill House is impressive and instructive. But a chance to display so many more of its artifacts in an area often busy with shoppers is a wonderful opportunity to show off the city’s culture. It could attract new life even as it celebrates the old.

If the weather is fair late Saturday afternoon, Bangor’s downtown will be filled with families watching the city’s annual holiday parade. Seeing so many people downtown at Christmastime or, for instance in the summer, during the folk festival, gives some sense of how lively Main Street could become much more often. A more visible venue for the museum won’t produce large crowds on its own, but it is part of a steady rebuilding of the city’s downtown.

Before the historic displays go up, however, the museum has fund raising to do for renovations of the 12,000-square-foot building. That too will require donations from the community, which will be repaid many times over by the presence of the museum at the center of downtown.