Union Station dedicated July 23

A special train consisting of private cars 444 of the Boston & Maine Railroad and 666 of the Maine Central pulled up to Bangor’s brand new Union Station at 7 p.m. July 23, 1907, a century ago today. Among the dignitaries aboard was Lucius Tuttle, president of both railroads.

A large crowd had gathered to see Tuttle and other dignitaries, but the important men sat in their luxury cars waiting to be escorted into the station. “… all the satisfaction [the crowd] could get was in watching the colored porters cleaning up and sweeping out,” remarked a reporter for the Bangor Daily News, offering readers today a reminder of the racial and class distinctions that ruled the land.

After two years of planning and construction and after $500,000 in spending, the new train station, which more than any other building would assume an iconic presence in the city’s history, was about to be dedicated. The Queen City had finally arrived, after years of frustration in dealing with the railroads. The new station was a symbol of its wealth and prestige. Tonight “big guns in the railroad world” would be booming a salute to Bangor, wrote the reporter.

The banquet room, the station’s future restaurant, was festooned with 200 silk flags from countries around the world. Potted palms and other plants were tastefully arranged. A 10-piece orchestra played. Everyone who was anyone was there, from Mayor John Woodman to Isaiah Stetson, president of the Bangor Board of Trade. Among the many features on the menu was boiled Penobscot River salmon with hollandaise sauce, a reminder of the Queen City’s productivity and self-reliance.

The multitude of distinguished speakers that evening made their points briefly and succinctly beginning at 11 p.m. through a haze of after-dinner cigar smoke. “There is nothing more untrue than the report … that the great transportation managers sit aloft from their fellows – entirely regardless of the public – that they respect nobody’s rights and care only for big receipts,” asserted President Tuttle. “Why the erection of this beautiful station is an illustration that the Maine Central, for instance, is trying to do the best it can by Bangor.”

In response, William T. Haines, a Republican gubernatorial candidate from Waterville, said the public appreciated all that had been done, but it wanted more – more tracks, more safety measures, more cars, lower freight rates. His comments were vigorously applauded, commented the Bangor Daily News reporter in his account on July 24.

Coincidentally, in an event that had nothing to do with the new train station, but a lot to do with safety, Engineer Adam Markley was killed a few hours after the conclusion of the dedication after the air brakes failed on his locomotive and it plunged 15 feet over an embankment in what was known as the Eastern Yard, opposite Newbury Street.

The building of Union Station was the climax of the city’s long and impressive railroad history. The Bangor & Piscataquis Canal & Railroad Co. ran the first steam railroad in Maine from Bangor to Stillwater in 1836. In the years ahead, different companies stretched the tracks all the way to St. John, New Brunswick, according to a piece on Bangor railroad history in the Bangor Daily News on July 29 [incorrectly dated July 28]. The first train to run west from the city was operated by the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad in 1855. Eventually, the Maine Central acquired the rights to these lines. A new railroad, the Bangor & Aroostook, had begun serving central and northern Maine only a few years ago, a testimony to the area’s great economic growth.

Stations handling passengers and freight had grown up on both sides of the Kenduskeag Stream. The new Union Station was built on the east side at the foot of Exchange Street after the old railroad building there was torn down. Now it was time to tear down the decrepit station on the west side of the stream at the foot of Railway Street. Not only had it seen the first train go west from Bangor, but it had witnessed the departure of troops in 1861 and 1898. Four presidents had passed under its roof: Grant and Roosevelt had visited Bangor, while Harrison and Cleveland had been on their way to Bar Harbor, said the newspaper.

The opening of Union Station resulted in some predictable controversies in the first few weeks. Hack drivers and public carriage drivers clashed over who would get to park nearest the new station. Because gates, fences, paving and other safety measures hadn’t been completed, several people were killed or injured at the train yard and various other points, such as the new railroad bridge over the Kenduskeag and near the ferry landing.

Exchange Street had been transformed. “Formerly it was a staid old street and about all one heard … was shipping and lumber talk, but now … hacks hurry up and down the street in a steady stream and crowds come and go along the sidewalks,” remarked the Bangor Daily Commercial on July 30. The Bangor Daily News noted on Aug. 7 that the foot of Exchange Street was no longer “a haven for loafers, dreaded at night.” No one mentioned all the illegal saloons.

How long would this new train station last? There was “the possibility that in another half century this station, as the old, will be outgrown and antiquated and unfit for the tremendous run of traffic,” speculated a Bangor Daily News reporter. He was only off by a few years. Union Station was torn down in 1961, an event still mourned by many Bangoreans. What the reporter did not foresee and probably never could have imagined was the demise of train passenger service as well.

Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net. Dick Shaw contributed information to this column.