Demolition not always the solution

I was dismayed to learn from the interview with Helen McKinnon of Eastern Maine Medical Center that two State Street houses are slated for demolition (BDN, Nov. 1). I participated in the meetings on Nov. 5 and Nov. 8, the latter under the auspices of the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission, in opposition to this plan.

Bangor has an outstanding architectural heritage. A large portion of its historic downtown was demolished in the 1960s by urban renewal and private enterprise. Some of the greatest losses were Union Station and the old Bijou Theater, both taken down by business interests. Many old timers stopped coming to Bangor to shop and even moved away from the city. (As an architectural historian, I have heard these stories over and over again.)

When I moved to Bangor in 1966, I asked why it contained so many apparent bomb sites like London after World War II. The city is now, finally, recovering economically and in spirit. It does not deserve another loss created when its architectural landscape is violated.

In 1988 I prepared a survey for the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission of State Street from 412 State Street (the Carr-Wing House) to 502 State Street. I concluded it was a potential National Register and local historic district. It was, however, not nominated for a number of reasons. The two houses endangered by EMMC’s plan, as announced by Ms. McKinnon, would both be eligible on their own.

The Carr-Wing House existed before 1820, was remodeled as a Gothic Revival country estate in the 1840s and became part of an important Gothic Revival complex. Its next owners Wilson D. Wing, a lumberman, and his daughters (great benefactors of the hospital) enlarged it with Queen Anne elements and rare woodwork on the interior.

The Sherman N. Shumway-Robinson House is a distinguished Colonial Revival house by Desmond & Lord, architects of Boston. Both would qualify as National Register-eligible structures for federal and state tax rehabilitation credits, and could become economically viable contributors to the local economy. Bangor leads the state in the number of such projects including two in downtown and a parade of buildings up Hammond Street hill to the Congregational church. The hospital would not have to participate in such projects if another developer acquired or leased the buildings.

Each time the hospital grows, the parking crunch around it gets worse. Many workers are bused from parking lots rather than being able to park on campus or across the street, and I am sympathetic to these problems. But if Bangor is to continue growing into a vibrant 21st century city, it will be necessary to change the suburban expectation that parking be adjacent to work, and commute in different ways. Probably, the only way to achieve sufficient adjacent parking would be to relocate the entire hospital complex to a non-urban setting.

At the most, EMMC could add 100 places by taking down the Carr-Wing House (parking would not be allowed on the site of the Robinson House, because of its residential zoning). A parking garage on the Otis Street lot would certainly add many more spaces than 100. Since the hospital plans to build a much larger building (possibly eight stories) on the site of the present Webber Building, 100 spaces seems like a small number indeed.

The outcome of the two recent meetings was that EMMC form a committee of citizens with expertise on all sides of the issue, to try to come up with ideas to improve the parking situation for the hospital. In the meantime, one hopes and prays that demolition will not again be regarded as a solution – it has taken over 30 years to fill the urban renewal parcel on which the new courthouse is being constructed.

The emotional pain caused by the destruction of two landmark houses, and its undoubted serious effect on the remaining houses in State and Howard Streets beyond the Shumway-Robinson House, would negatively affect the area’s perception of Eastern Maine Medical Center as a beneficent and public-minded institution of healing.

Deborah Thompson has worked as an architectural historian for more than 25 years and is the author of an architectural history of Bangor.