County’s first court occupied by British

BANGOR – The first courthouse in Penobscot County was built nearly 200 years before the groundbreaking Friday for the Penobscot County Judicial Center.

That first structure was built on speculation by private citizens to be used as a house of public worship and a courthouse when needed. It was located on a half-acre lot bounded by Columbia, Hammond and Main streets, according to “The Courthouses of Maine.”

Before the building was completed, British troops occupied it in the War of 1812. The troops stayed only two days but the city had to give military leaders a bond to assure the delivery of vessels under construction to the British at Castine.

Completed in 1813, it was used for the town meeting and the First Congregational Society for worship services. The first court session was held in the building on July 2, 1816, and five years later the Supreme Judicial Court held its first term in Bangor. The county bought the building and lot for $2,000 in 1825.

By the 1830s, the city was feeling the impact of the lumber boom, growing at such a rapid rate that its population tripled in four years. The dozen lawyers who worked in Bangor increased to 40 and the residents demanded more law enforcement and justice.

In 1931, the old courthouse was sold to the city for $3,260 and a new building was planned on the Hammond Street lot where the Penobscot County Courthouse stands today. It was to be built of 100,000 bricks so that it would be less susceptible to fire and was to cost no more than $1,000.

The 21/2-story building was completed in 1833, with court offices and judges’ chambers on the first floor and a courtroom on the second. Twenty-five years later, a two-story addition at the cost of $2,500 and $3,000 was constructed. It provided room for the probate office and meetings of the county commissioners on the first floor and grand jury room on the second.

By the turn of the century construction on the third Penobscot County Courthouse had begun. The exterior of the building looked much as it does today. Then as now, it housed the Registry of Deeds, the Probate Courtroom, a law library and rooms for the court records, law library, clerk of the courts, jurors, judges and criminal defendants.

When completed in 1903 at a cost of $116,500, it included the county attorney’s and sheriff’s offices, which are no longer in the building. It also had only one courtroom with a majestic two-story-high ceiling. The room was halved and the second courtroom constructed in the 1960s. The annex behind the courthouse where the office of the Penobscot County district attorney and probate court are located was added in the 1970s.

The spot where the new courthouse is being built was a city-owned plot known as B-13. The buildings that lined Exchange Street were a mix of commercial and residential buildings. They were torn down during urban renewal in the 1960s. Bunny’s Cafe, J.L. Coombs, Superior Papers and Snow & Neally were located on the site, according to the city of Bangor.