Bangor councilors to decide Wing Estate historical status

BANGOR – City councilors will decide Monday if the Wing Estate, that stately yellow structure at 412 State St., should be designated as a historic landmark.

Members of the city’s historic preservation commission voted 4-1 on Jan. 10 to recommend that the Wing Estate be designated a local historic landmark.

Councilors were poised to do that in February, but agreed at that time to instead wait for a recommendation from the State Street Neighborhood Work Group.

The group, however, has not yet completed its work, according to Jill McDonald, spokeswoman for Eastern Maine Medical Center, which owns the Wing Estate.

The hospital convened the work group late last year, after people in the community rallied to rescue the Wing Estate and the Robinson House, located at 424 State St. and also owned by EMMC at the time.

EMMC had been contemplating tearing the two buildings down to make space for parking and other uses.

The Wing Estate is one of a few Gothic Revival-style houses remaining in the city and is nearly two centuries old.

The Robinson house at 424 State St., which dates to the 1930s and sits on the property of the former Howard House, which was built in 1781 and is believed to have been the first frame house in Bangor.

The hospital since has found a buyer for that property.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

990-8189