Seminary requests zone change in advance of potential sale

BANGOR – Bangor Theological Seminary is seeking a zoning change for a portion of its historic campus in anticipation of the sale of the entire parcel later this summer.

The seminary is asking the planning board to rezone six houses, including the former home of Hannibal Hamlin, from a Governmental and Institutional Services designation to an Urban Residential designation.

A hearing on the proposed zone change is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 19, at Bangor City Hall.

The property is under contract, Richard Cattelle, who marketed it for BTS, said earlier this week. He did not disclose the name of the potential purchaser or the selling price, but described the buyer as “a group of people from Portland who have some interests in properties in Bangor already.”

“It’s not a big, high-flying development,” he said.

If the zoning change is approved, the buyer would continue to rent the 24 apartment units, Cattelle said. About three-quarters of them are occupied by seminary students. Plans for the Hamlin house and the rest of the campus aren’t firm yet.

The buyer hopes to rent the buildings formerly used by the seminary as classrooms, offices, library and chapel, he said. Several nonprofit groups have expressed interest in possibly becoming tenants. The historic campus could be used by public agencies or many private nonprofit organizations without a zone change.

The seminary put the campus property on the market about 18 months ago after the school relocated to the Husson College campus on the other side of Bangor in 2005. Cattelle said the seminary’s board of trustees decided not to set an asking price for the property but instead to find a buyer who saw the potential of the property.

In November, BTS President Rev. William Imes moved from the Hannibal Hamlin house, located at the corner of Fifth and Hammond streets, to a renovated farmhouse at 782 Broadway near the new location. The asking price for the home of Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president was $449,000. Hamlin’s heirs gave the house to the seminary in 1933 to be used as a home for its president.

Although Hamlin’s house and the campus were marketed as separate properties, the potential buyer has agreed to buy both, Cattelle said.

The seminary was given a hayfield at what is now the 6.5-acre parcel bordered by Hammond, Union, Pond and Cedar streets in 1819. Over the years, a library, chapel, classrooms, commons area and brick building – first used as a dorm and later for offices – were constructed there.

In addition to the students currently renting apartments, the seminary also rents space to a day care center and a church.