Bangor Police Museum born from ‘addiction’

BANGOR – Drugs or alcohol usually come to mind when people think of addictions, but in Fred Bryant’s case, he’s addicted to history.

“I can’t stop it now,” said Bryant, who started collecting historic Bangor Police Department memorabilia as an officer in the mid-1970s. “It’s an addiction.”

It started with an old-fashioned set of handcuffs, some billy clubs and dated photographs from Bangor’s yesteryears. It slowly grew to the collection it is today with help from fellow police officer Tom Landers and many others over the last thirty years.

“I had a few items and he had two items and we said, ‘Let’s start a museum,'” said Bryant, who joined the Bangor Police Department in 1963 and retired in 1984.

His wife, Debbie Bryant, an undercover drug unit officer until the mid-1980s and one of the first women to attend the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, also has been a tremendous contributor to the Bangor Police Museum, donating a huge amount of time and effort over the years, Bryant said Friday.

To collect the items, the Bryants hit antique shops, traded with fellow officers from all over the world, attended memorabilia shows, and searched Uncle Henry’s and eBay. All in all, the Bryants have invested approximately $40,000 over the years gathering the items.

“A lot of the stuff has been donated,” Bryant said.

Of all the historic memorabilia, it’s a Civil War diary penned by Joseph Tyler that is Bryant’s most treasured find.

Tyler was a Bangor police officer who started the journal in 1865 while serving in the military and continued it after returning to the city to become a lawman in 1866.

Two of Tyler’s police badges also were given to the museum curator by Tyler’s great-grandson and are on display with the diary.

The collection’s first home was at the old Court Street police station, but the memorabilia is now housed in a hexagon-shaped display room located off the lobby of the new Summer Street police station which officially opened at the end of December.

Today, the Bangor Police Museum includes a wealth of photos, news clippings, mannequins dressed in uniforms from different eras and different law enforcement agencies, and badges from Maine and some foreign countries.

Just about every kind of handcuff that the Bangor Police Department ever used also can be found, and the collection even includes an iron metal tramp chair, a monstrous-looking one-person holding cell on loan from the Bangor Historical Society, as well as a refurbished 1936 paddy wagon.

“I searched and searched because I was looking for one that had ‘the look,'” Bryant said about the historic vehicle.

He found the wagon on eBay in Rochester, N.Y., and after rebuilding the rusted parts, getting a professional paint job done by local United Technologies Center students, and labeling done by Bangor businessman Wally Thurston, the shiny black vehicle looks brand new.

It is the centerpiece of the entire collection.

The Dixmont couple has collected so much “Bangor’s Finest” memorabilia that there isn’t enough room to display it all at its new home, especially with the paddy wagon sitting in the center of the display area.

Bryant said he doesn’t have room for half of what he’s gathered.

“I might have to rotate [the collection] in the summer,” he said.

The museum will not look 100 percent complete until the life-sized historic photo backdrops for the mannequins, being produced by Thurston, are done and in place, which won’t occur until the Bryants return from a three-week vacation they were starting today.

The museum is open during the day Monday through Friday, but is locked up at night and on weekends.

“I’d love to have people come in,” Bryant said. “It’s free, but for those who want to give, there is a donation box.”

“I’ve always been a history buff,” Bryant added. “I love to read. I love Maine history, and especially Bangor Police Department history.”