Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Feb. 21, 1998

BANGOR – Call it the Star Beef building. Call it the Kobritz building. By any name, the city wants to buy the property as part of its Penobscot Riverfront Redevelopment Plan.

Last June, the community and economic development committee told department director Rodney McKay to have an appraisal done on the two-story building at 77 Railroad St. and start discussion with the owners, Joseph Constantine of C&R Realty and RC-BH Corp.

The parcel is surrounded by 28.8 acres of waterfront property the city purchased in September 1996 from Maine Central Railroad.

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BANGOR – Problems with the heating system at the Hose 5 Fire Museum on State Street caused $6,000 to $9,000 in damages in the past week.

Capt. Richard Brooks, president of the museum, said the museum’s furnace failed Wednesday. A water pipe froze and burst, damaging the ceiling and upstairs carpet, flooring and electrical wiring, he said.

On Thursday, an off-duty firefighter went to the museum to complete repairs on the furnace, only to discover thick, black smoke banking down to the floor. Firefighters spent more than an hour ventilating smoke and carbon monoxide from the museum. In the end, the entire building was coated with a fine soot and was damaged by smoke.

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BANGOR – Even though he has become a multimedia hyphenate, Bill Chinnock still has music in his heart.

These days, Chinnock’s activities with The Artist Group, a Fairfield multimedia center that he founded in 1992, keep him occupied to the point where he plays only about a dozen gigs a year.

But Chinnock is bringing both old and new songs to Bangor for an unplugged show at the Sea Dog Brewing Co.

25 years ago – Feb. 21, 1983

ORONO – A 60-year-old blind guitarist from the South brought his silken voice and subdued guitar to soothe a Northern audience so thoroughly that an encore of “Dixie” inspired a spirited sing-along.

Doc Watson picked guitar with his son, Merle Watson, and sang with the harmonies of an electric bass player before more than 1,000 people in back-to-back performances in Hauck Auditorium, University of Maine.

Watson seems to inhabit an unspoiled land that time has forgotten. Blind since birth, Watson also is blind to momentary shifts in popular taste.

Harking back to another time, his music retains an unshakable authenticity and purity that is almost impossible for performers to protect from the ravages of commercialism.

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BANGOR – When A.H. Henderson watched his latest creation take to the water at Camden in 1880, no one knew what the oak-framed, three-masted schooner’s end would be.

Nor could they guess that she would figure in a minor squabble between Bangor and Brewer or surmise that she would set an example of good – and bad – business practices.

Years later, her captain, Frank P. Hardy, brought the Annie L. Henderson up Bangor River (the Penobscot) in late August of 1906. The Annie L. measured 428 tons and had a length beam and depth of 140-by-33-by-13 feet. She cut a relatively chipper figure as she pushed by the Hampden steamboat landing on an uneventful haul.

The Annie L. Henderson’s roster of owners reads like a Who’s Who of Bangor River. Horace A. Stone of Bangor had purchased 44/64ths of the vessel’s shares. He became her managing owner and, in spite of having paid $9,000 for her, insured her for $500.

50 years ago – Feb. 21, 1958

BANGOR – The Bangor Jaycees Wives’ Club has nominated Mrs. Mary J. Flanagan of 350 French St. and Mrs. Frances A. Quirk of 159 Maple St. for the Mother of the Year recognition.

Mrs. Flanagan, 83, is the mother of seven children, four of whom are living. She was left a widow when her youngest boy was only five years old and she supported her family by taking in roomers. She put two boys through college and a daughter through nurse’s training. She also cared for her aged father, John Holland, who lived to be 94.

Mrs. Quirk, wife of John Quirk, was a nurse before her marriage and graduated from the Eastern Maine General Hospital School of Nursing. She is the mother of a daughter and two sons.

100 years ago – Feb. 21, 1908

CARMEL – The Creamery company succeeded in filling its houses last week with about 1,000 tons of ice.

The dance at Society Hall under the auspices of Golden Harvest Grange was a success both socially and financially. About $15 was cleared.

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WEST WINTERPORT – Farmers, lumbermen and icemen alike are deploring the loss of snow, and good sledding, also of the ice in the Catamawawa River.

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CASTINE – The storm yesterday and last night gives us the first real good sleighing for the winter, a fact which will be very much appreciated by the local liverymen and those cutting and hauling ice, as well as our farmers, who still have a large amount of wood to be gotten out of the woods.

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NORTH WINTERPORT – Laura Young closed a successful term of school in Hampden.

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BANGOR – Hon. and Mrs. C. F. Bragg and Miss Agnes Bragg left for New York, whence they will sail in the steamer San Juan for a two-months trip to Porto Rico, where they will visit their daughter, Mrs. Edward S. Paine. They will be accompanied from Boston by Miss Bertha Milliken who will spend a month in Porto Rico.

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SOUTH ORRINGTON – William Bowden, who has recently purchased a fine new gasoline engine, has in stock 100,000 feet of logs. He will commence sawing soon. This is custom work and we wish Mr. Bowden success in his new enterprise.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin