EMMC to raze historic homes Parking headaches prompt demolition

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BANGOR – The majestic yellow home with white gingerbread trim has stood on State Street for nearly two centuries, its Gothic Revival architecture one of only two spectacular examples of the movement that remains in the city.

Nearby, a prominent white house, the Robinson home, sits on the corner of State and Howard streets. A small monument at the edge of its grassy property line marks the site of the former Howard house, built in 1781, believed to be the first home ever built in Bangor.

The histories of these two eye-catching Bangor sites have been well documented, but their future lies in a landfill.

Eastern Maine Medical Center officials have decided to demolish both the Wing Estate, located at 412 State St., and the Robinson home at 424 State St., said Helen McKinnon, vice president of Support Services for EMMC.

“The only decision that [has been] made is that [the buildings] will be coming down and we will be planning to put parking at the Wing site,” McKinnon said on Wednesday.

Hospital officials sought demolition bids from contractors this fall and hope to raze the buildings in December or January, she said. McKinnon has yet to see the bids, and there is no contract at present. The hospital has yet to apply for a demolition permit from the city, she said.

Officials believe the parking lot pegged for the Wing Estate property, which would expand the current hospital lot by about 100 spaces, will be completed next spring, McKinnon said. Plans for the Robinson property are still undetermined since the property is zoned for single-family residential.

“We know [the structures] cannot be sustained. They are not healthy buildings right now,” McKinnon said.

Area historians believe the Wing Estate was built before 1820, and Joshua Wingate Carr purchased it in 1844. Carr remodeled the home between 1844 and 1845, transforming it into Gothic Revival, said Deborah Thompson, local architectural historian. Wilson D. Wing purchased the home from Carr in 1906, and it remained in the Wing family until Affiliated Healthcare Systems purchased it in 1983, and then Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in 1986. Since then, the building has been used as offices for doctors and hospital staff, and up until recently, a portion served as the hospital’s child care facility.

The Robinson house, which was built in 1931 for Sherman N. Shumway, was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Desmond & Lord and was the only residence in Maine constructed by the company, Thompson said. The home ranks among the top colonial revival houses in the nation and has a drawing room that is “one of the finest of its kind,” she said.

The Robinson home is well known for the fresh floral displays Margaret Estelle Robinson would hang in the glass doorway at the front of the home. She lived there with her husband Harold, owner of Robinson-Kenney Oil Co., through the 1990s. EMHS purchased the building in 2001, and then ownership was transferred to EMMC in 2005, said Joel Farley, facilities administrator for EMMC.

Eastern Maine officials now say both properties are in disrepair.

The Wing Estate has “challenged us for many years with its mold, heat-ability and age,” said McKinnon. Estate repairs would include replacing the entire roof and solving a water infiltration issue, which could cost between $200,000 and $300,000, said Patrick Taber, construction project manager for EMMC.

Renovations to the Robinson house, which requires a new roof, siding, trim, repainting, replacement windows, interior plastering, new plumbing fixtures and flooring, would cost $300,000, said Taber.

EMMC’s final tenant in Wing, the physicians practice management, is set to move out of the building within the next two months, McKinnon said. After that time EMMC will not continue to heat the building, Farley said.

“We would be putting a lot of money into a building that doesn’t have a lot of usefulness to us at this time,” McKinnon said of the Wing Estate.

The preservation of Bangor’s landmark sites falls to historically conscious residents and responsible property owners, said Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.

“If the present owner does not wish to invest in [the two properties], then that owner should give the public an opportunity to see if someone else out there is willing to take it on,” he said. “Bangor has a long list of people who have been willing to take over [historical structures] in this area, and they have rescued several significant buildings.”

The restrictive nature of EMMC’s site, lodged between Route 2 and the Penobscot River, has resulted in years of parking headaches for the medical facility. For five years, the hospital has bused about 250 employees Monday through Friday from the downtown parking garage and a company parking lot off the Sylvan Road to the center, McKinnon said. The hospital’s lease of 210 spaces at the downtown parking garage is “on notice” because the city anticipates a need for parking once the new court facility downtown is completed, she said.

“We really are operating an urban medical center in a rural state,” said Joel Farley, facilities administrator for EMMC. “We are really struggling maximizing the footprint.”

Bulldozing two homes so prominent to Bangor’s identity for parking is unacceptable, according to vocal historians.

“I hope, considering all of the demolition that historically has taken place in Bangor, particularly in the downtown area, that the hospital would be mindful of its civic responsibility to come up with a more creative solution for its parking needs [rather] than the demolition of two additional historic buildings,” Shettleworth said.

When asked if the hospital had considered building an additional tier to its parking garage, Farley said it had been presented as an option, but parking would be significantly strained during the construction period.

Demolition of both buildings would simply require a permit, which could take just a couple of days to administer, said Jeremy Martin, the city’s development coordinator. The hospital also must submit to modify the site location permit, which is sent to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation and the Historical Preservation Commission.

EMMC and EMHS own both the Wing Estate and Robinson house, and neither is listed on the National Register for Historic Places or fall within a city historic district, said Martin. There is no legal obligation for the hospital, or the city, to notify neighbors of EMMC’s plans, he said.

The Wing Estate is currently zoned for government and institutional development, same as the hospital, Martin said. A parking lot would fit within the zoning criteria. The Robinson house is zoned for a single-family residence, and most any other usage, including a parking lot, would require a change, he said.

If the hospital applies for a zone change, abutting residents would be notified about the planning board’s public hearing, Martin said. The hospital expects to notify neighbors when a contract is signed and firm demolition dates are set, McKinnon said.

In September, EMMC officials sent a letter to neighbors, inviting them to a Sept. 20 meeting to share some of the plans. The Robinson house spurred the most conversation, McKinnon said, since many of the residents had “said goodbye to the Wing Estate as part of their neighborhood” a long time ago.

“We’ve been very good neighbors to EMMC with all that’s gone on there,” said Larry Willey, a Howard Street resident. The “continual encroachment on that neighborhood” is bothersome, he said.

Another Howard Street resident, Susan Kominsky, said she wrote a letter to EMMC stating her opposition to the plans.

If the Robinson house is torn down, then it will only be a matter of time before other homes in the neighborhood find a similar fate, Thompson said.

“Hospitals and universities are the top destroyers of historic buildings worldwide,” said Thompson.