Robinson, Wing manses in need of treatment

As a resident of lower Howard Street for 26 years, I feel driven to comment on the front-page article “EMMC to raze historic homes” (BDN, Nov. 1) and Tuesday’s follow-up “Residents rally to save historic houses.”

My wife and I are very fond of this neighborhood, and we became amateur historians of what is commonly referred to now as the Robinson property, originally the Howard property. Our research led in 1984 to the creation of a historical volume, which will be given to the Bangor Historical Society, and the placement of a monument at the corner of State and Howard Streets commemorating the location of the original Howard house. The monument was funded by local contributors, many from the neighborhood. Rogan’s Memorials donated the stone and the labor to place it.

The house which stood on that corner, built by the Howards in 1781, was one of the first frame houses in Bangor. Contrary to the recent article, it was never considered to be the first home here. The house was greatly expanded over the next 150 years (see BDN, Oct. 10, 1984, with pictures) and was torn down as an eyesore by the Shumways, builders of the house next door that was later bought by the Robinsons after intervening owners. The really historic old Howard house is long gone. It’s ironic that the Shumway-Robinson house has itself now become an eyesore, through the neglect of owners predating the purchase of the property by EMMC. It’s in end-stage disrepair and dates back only to 1931.

Similarly, the Wing sisters would mourn, as we in the neighborhood do, if they could see the state of their old home today. It was a nice example of gray-painted Victorian Gothic (extensively remodeled in that style by J.W. Carr in the 1840s) before all the changes to it that we now see. Surely our local expert on such things, Deborah Thompson, and Earle Shettleworth of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, must recognize that the former architectural value of the Carr-Wing mansion has been severely damaged by the several large, ugly additions and other changes made (1970s) to it long before Eastern Maine Medical Center became the owner. The recent article was in error again when it reported that the hospital bought it from the Wing estate. The house was thoroughly “remuddled” by intervening owners.

The question facing EMMC was simple: Is it reasonable to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, which could otherwise be spent toward its mission of caring for the sick and injured, to restore severely damaged buildings which now have very little architectural value or practical use? Some people believe that EMMC, with an operating budget of many millions, has great pots full of cash to spend on such projects. It does not. Its profit margin is extremely narrow, and it gets tighter all the time. Just ask for a list of equipment that’s desired and equipment that’s affordable in any given year.

Bangor’s Planning Board may be asked to address the question of whether a parking lot should be allowed on the Robinson property, although I am told there are currently no plans for this. Such an allowance would be destructive to the neighborhood and should not be permitted. I have more faith in our city government than to predict doom for lower Howard Street.

Bangor has collective regrets from the era of urban renewal and rightly so. I take some satisfaction from having led a successful petition among the EMMC medical staff which saved the original building of the hospital (the Mace-Cutler mansion, or gray-stone building) from its planned demolition in the mid-1970s, so I’m certainly not insensitive to the issue. It would be wonderful if an individual of means would buy the Robinson House and live in it. Likewise someone could buy what remains of the Carr-Wing mansion and move it. But we shouldn’t ask EMMC to do it.

Dr. Alan W. Boone is a retired physician formerly employed by Eastern Maine Medical Center.