Many readers remember the days not so long ago when every town had an open dump that was the source of smoke and other odors, water pollution and litter. A century ago things were much worse. Cities such as Bangor had many of these dumps, both public and private, scattered wherever vacant lots were available. They added to the pall of smoke from coal and wood fires in homes and factories that hung in the air.

Bangor city fathers moved to alleviate the problem, described here by a Bangor Daily News reporter on May 15, 1908. “The ‘dump’ question, which has been agitating Bangor for some time, has been settled in a manner which causes unlimited satisfaction to citizens,” he wrote.

“For a long time there have been complaints regarding the disagreeable and unsanitary condition of the dumping places throughout the city. These rubbish refuse heaps were located everywhere and were most unsightly. There seemed to be no regulations, and, if there were, they were totally disregarded.”

That spring Mayor John Woodman took action with the assistance of Street Commissioner Charles Woodbury and the City Council. They decreed that from then on there would only be two public dumps – one for the city’s East Side and one for the West Side (on either side of the Kenduskeag Stream) – and they would be closely tended by municipal employees.

The West Side dump was located on Sidney Street in a deep hollow between the ends of the street, which was supposed to connect Third and Main streets, but had never been completed. It would serve as fill so the two parts of the street might eventually be connected. The East Side dump, which was above Stillwater Avenue on Essex Street, had been used for many years.

All other public dumps would be closed. They included one particularly notorious mess on Pier Street, where the Fire Department had been called out many times. Others were at Lincoln and Third streets, on Drummond Street and at Pearl and Garland streets. The latter spot had become the source of a great deal of neighborhood litter.

Private dumps could remain open as long as the owners kept them from littering nearby property. No mention was made of public burning, however, which apparently was still acceptable, being only a small part of the smoke that billowed out of household and factory chimneys in those days.

While the dump issue was being settled (for the time being), another air pollution problem, located right in the middle of downtown Bangor, came to the fore. It gives us an idea today of the odors that assaulted the nostrils of city residents back when piles of horse manure decorated the busiest streets and outhouses were scattered about the landscape.

The stables and other buildings on the Hayford lot at Hammond and Franklin streets were at the center of a controversy dividing Bangor. The city had seized the land by eminent domain for a new library, but the owners of the property refused to sell it for the price offered.

The Hayford heirs had lost their battle in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, but their lawyer had threatened to take the case to federal court. Some powerful advocates of seizing the property, such as the Bangor Daily Commercial, urged the city to give the heirs the money already offered, clear the lot and build the library. The Commercial’s editorials adopted an environmental argument to advance the case.

MENACE TO HEALTH, the Commercial proclaimed on May 23. “Unhealthy Vapors Rising From Neglected Sheds and Stables are Incubators of Disease.” The story said, “Those suffering more than any others perhaps from the evil odors arising from manure piles, closets [outhouses], dirty and undrained, and the other disagreeable features of stable lots … are the occupants of the county building in which the jail and the residence of the sheriff of the county and his family are located.”

An unnamed county official observed, “On some days, particularly such warm and muggy days as come during the early summer, when a great deal of moisture is rising from the earth, it is impossible to keep open the windows in the jail because of the unhealthful odors rising from these old sheds and stables.”

Proper ventilation was believed to be essential to good health, but “vile odors” could cause typhoid fever and other diseases, it was believed. “If these old sheds and stables and their accumulation of filth are allowed to remain as they are during the coming hot weather, no one can say what the results will be.”

The buildings should be cleared away as “an act of mercy for these unfortunates whose lack of moral strength has caused them to be punished by imprisonment.” Such stenches probably existed in other places in the Queen City. The Hayford heirs got a court order in June stopping the city from clearing the lot, and the battle continued for awhile.

wreilly@bangordailynews.net