Seminary to put Hamlin heirlooms up for auction

BANGOR – The bed that Hannibal Hamlin slept in is for sale.

So are his walnut lift-top commode, upright spinet piano and 6-foot-tall painting of the Madonna and cherubs along with books from his personal library.

The estate of Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president will be auctioned off Saturday at the former site of the Bangor Theological Seminary bordered by Union and Hammond streets.

Hamlin’s heirs gave the school Hamlin’s home and its contents in 1933. Located at Fifth and Hammond streets, it was used as a home for seminary presidents for more than 70 years.

The seminary also will sell tables, chairs, bookcases, office furniture, artwork and more than 10,000 volumes from the Moulton Library used by students, faculty and staff for almost two centuries.

The auction is the last phase of the seminary’s preparations to sell the property it was given in 1819 and on which its first chapel was erected five years later. The school moved across town to the Husson College campus in September 2005.

The sale of the property, which includes Hamlin’s former home, is expected to be completed later this summer, according to seminary President William Imes. Plans for the property have not been announced.

“The actual sale of the stuff from Hamlin’s home isn’t too big a deal for us,” Imes said Monday. “The biggest task for us has been going through the 30,000 volumes in our library and deciding what to keep, which books to sell privately and which to auction off.”

Boston University bought a series of books, many written by the seminary’s graduates who were foreign missionaries during the 19th century, Imes said. The seminary’s collections of old sermons, many written in the 18th century, were placed on permanent loan to the Bangor Public Library.

“Our goal was not to be cluttered with stuff we have no place to put,” he said. “We are keeping what will best support what we are currently teaching.”

The seminary had to condense its library and office space when it moved to Husson, he said. The seminary went from 70,000 square feet of space to 10,000 square feet, which is what it needs for the first quarter of the 21st century at least, Imes said.

The seminary is keeping items that are part of its history or have sentimental value such as a large wooden board that names graduates who became missionaries and where they served.

Not everything the seminary owns but does not need at its new location is included in the auction. Some items that might be of interest to local historical museums will not be sold, according to Imes.

The seminary expects to make $40,000 to $150,000 from the auction, he said. After the costs of marketing the property are paid, the remaining money will be placed in the seminary’s endowment fund, which has been depleted in recent years to cover operating expenses.

A bid of history

Saturday’s auction of items from the Hannibal Hamlin house and Bangor Theological Seminary will be at the seminary’s former campus at Union and Hammond Streets in Bangor.

A preview of items will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.

Doors will open at 8 a.m. Saturday with the auction of the antiques from the Hannibal Hamlin estate to begin at 10 a.m. in the seminary Commons Room.

The remaining used furniture, office furniture and library fixtures will be auctioned off beginning at 1 p.m. in the tent on the seminary grounds.

The book auction will be held at 4 p.m. in the Moulton Library.

The auction is being conducted by Poulin Antiques & Auctions of Fairfield.

Items may be viewed online at www.poulinantiques.com.