Poking Around in Maine

Poking Around in Little City
Bangor Maine
by Craig Mains

Chain-Wen and I got a lot of enjoyment out of just walking around in her neighborhood, which is called Little City. Little City is just north of the downtown area of Bangor. Bangor's early growth was based on the lumber industry. The first sawmills were started in the late 1700s but when Maine became a state in 1820 it opened up a period of frenzied speculation on timberlands upstream of Bangor. Lumber barons bought huge tracts of lands that were then timbered with the pine and spruce logs floated downstream on the Penobscot River to Bangor, where they were sawn into boards that were shipped around the world.

Between 1820 and 1850 Bangor was a boom town with the population growing from 2900 to 14,500. By 1860, Bangor was the largest lumber port in the world with more than 3000 lumber ships loading at Bangor wharves in one year. Many of the lumber ships were made in Bangor. Many of the houses in Little City date to the boom years between 1820 and 1850. By the late 1800s the Bangor timber industry had dramatically declined. As the large tracts were logged, the industry shifted west to the upper midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Logging continued into the 1900s but at a much smaller scale. Today there isn't a single sawmill in Bangor. Bangor continued to grow, however, peaking at about 39,000 people in 1960. Today there are about 31,000.

Above is a closer view of a map of Little City. Chain's house is the green square near the bottom of the neighborhood. Her workplace is St. Joseph Hospital in pink on the right side. While I was visiting, Angel (our dog) and I would walk her to work in the morning and meet her after work and walk back with her in the evening. I think we walked just about every street in the neighborhood at some point.

Little City slopes gradually from the south upwards towards the north. It levels off between Montgomery and Linden Streets. There is a steep bank along the west side of Kenduskeag Avenue that slopes downs to the stream. In at least one place it becomes a cliff.

One of the things I found interesting about Little City was that there were a variety of houses of different economic levels mixed together in a fairly small neighborhood. There are some of what I would call "grand houses," but also a lot of modest dwellings, ranging in age from the 1830s to the 1920s, in various conditions from neglected to immaculately restored.

Following are some photos of houses in the neighborhood that I found to be interesting or representative. Information on the date of construction and the architectural style came from two main souces. One was the Bangor Historical Society Facebook page, which regularly posted short bits of information about different buildings, people, and events in Bangor history. The other is the "Bangor Historic Resources Inventory, 1975." The two do not always agree on the date of construction.

One of the things that is immediately noticeable is that there are many houses in the neighborhood that seem to be composed of multiple houses that are connected. I had read somewhere that this was unique to Bangor and was not common elsewhere in Maine. After driving around in other parts of Maine that didn't seem to be entirely true.

Another example of a rambling Bangor house. This is the General Samuel P. Strickland House at 49 Kenduskeag, just a little down the street from Chain's house. It is considered to be an example of Greek Revival/Italianate architecture. It has been converted to apartments but was built as a single-family residence between 1843 and 1846. The porch on the left was added sometime in the 20th century. Strickland worked in the lumber industry. He was known as General Strickland although no one seems to know how the title of 'General' originated.

I wondered what the reason was for these elongated, rambling houses. It did not appear to be related to the shape of the lot on which the house was built. Someone posted on the Bangor Historical Society Facebook page that he had always heard that it was because at one time Bangor property taxes were assessed based on the width of the front of the house. This encouraged people to keep the front of the house narrow and build any additions to the rear of the house. The house shown above, although it has a Kenduskeag address, doesn't have an entrance facing Kenduskeag. So, sometimes the "front" of the house might not even look like the front. I have no idea whether that is true---no one responded to his post to confirm or refute the supposed reason. However, after reading the post I noticed that almost invariably the narrow side of these houses faced the street. And, if the house was on a corner, the narrow side of the house almost invariably faced the street that carried the house address---whether it looked like the front of the house or not.

Shown above is the front of the Thornton McGaw House at 31 Kenduskeag. It also fits the profile of a Bangor house that is relatively narrow on the address side and considerably longer on the side.

I spoke with one of the tenants of the building and she told me that McGaw was a lawyer who got wealthy representing the legal interests of the lumber barons. The tree with the bald eagle nest with two eaglets that we liked to watch was in the yard of this house.

This photo shows the side of the McGaw house including a long wing on the right. The photo doesn't begin to show the extent of deterioration of the building. A lot of the soffits and fascia were rotting out and some of the slates on the mansard roof were either missing or visibly loose. The tenant I talked to said the house had been split up into 13 separate apartments. She didn't leave me with the impression that the inside was in any better shape than the outside.

I have conflicted feelings about old houses. On the one hand I don't like to see them deteriorate to the point that they have to be torn down. On the other hand, I find a certain beauty in the weathering of neglected buildings. Above is a photo of the "front" entrance of the McGaw House, which I suspect is rarely used since it's on the opposite end from the parking area. While it's unfortunate that no one seems care that the door is water damaged, I somehow simultaneously find the neglected state of the doors and the house in general to be more interesting than if the house was perfectly preserved. Perhaps as I get older I can identify more with a progressive state of delapidation.

Across Division Street from the McGaw House sits this quirky little house, known as the Charles G. Bryant Double House. Bryant is considered to be Maine's first architect, although he had no formal architectural training---he started out as a carpenter and after a while he simply declared himself an architect. Between 1825 and 1837, during Bangor's boom years, Bryant designed and built numerous homes, churches, and commercial buildings in Bangor.

This house was completed in 1836 and is considered an example of Greek Revival style. The house is noted for having an unusual amount of detail for an otherwise modest dwelling. The detail includes fluted columns at the corners, a "recessed portico" with side-facing doors into entrance vestibules. The vestibules are "defined by fluted pilasters topped by an entablature with garlands." There is also a sunrise medallion at the peak of the front gable plus a row of small windows along the sides of the house. These windows would be at about knee level in the upstairs rooms.

Although Bryant briefly lived in this house, it was built as a speculative venture during the time when many houses were rapidly being built in Bangor. It was designed from the beginning to house two separate residences with the house being split down the middle. Bryant was said to have built several houses in Bangor using the same design. This is the only one to survive with most of its original decorative details intact. Although the neighborhood is full of old houses, it is one of only three on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Charles G. Bryant Double House as seen from a different perspective. Bryant had an interesting life, although it was abruptly shortened. In 1833, as a member of Bangor's local militia, he was instrumental in squelching a deadly riot involving newly arrived Irish immigrants and American loggers and sailors. In 1837 he lost almost all his money in the national banking panic and temporarily gave up architecture and building. He became involved in a plot to make Canada independent of Britain and was arrested for violating neutrality laws. He later ended up in Texas where he became a Texas Ranger. In 1850, while on an expedition, he was ambushed, killed, and scalped by Apache Indians. He was 47 years old.

A closer view of the "recessed portico" of the Charles G. Bryant Double Home. The louvered shutters over the frontfacing windows appear to be original. Some of the ornamental details are visible above the windows. The garlands above the pillars appear on some of the other houses Bryant designed.

Just around the corner on Prentiss Street is this double house, which is said to be one of the other Bryant double houses built to the same design as the one above. If so, it has been extensively altered. The building has been heightened, widened, and lengthened, the recessed portico has been replaced with a protruding double vestibule, and all of the Greek Revival flourishes have been removed. It's hard to believe this building was once the same as the one around the corner. The alterations must have occurred sometimes after 1975 because the Historic Resources Inventory of 1975 listed it as being in excellent condition.

About the only feature I could see that it still shared with the house on Division Street was the 2-1-2 spacing of windows on the side of the ground floor.

This wonderfully weathered front door of number 19 is one of the entrances to the de-ornamented Charles G. Bryant double house on Prentiss Street.

I have to say I am consistently flummoxed by the categorization of house styles. This house is still considered a Greek Revival style house. Is that because at one time it had Greek Revival ornamentation? Does it continue to be Greek Revival if all of the ornamentation is removed? Or is there also something about the lines of the house that make it Greek Revival? I think I could spend a long time studying house styles and still consistently flunk a quiz on the subject.

Possibly the grandest home in Little City is the Jones P. Veazie House at the corner of Fountain and Montgomery Streets. It is one of the few surviving buildings in Maine designed by the architect George W. Orff, who was a Bangor native but spent most of his career in Minnesota. The house is considered to be an excellent example of Second Empire architecture. It appears to be in excellent condition. There is also a large carriage house next door that was also designed by Orff.

Jones was one of the children of General Samuel Veazie who was one of the most baronial of Bangor's lumber barons. The general owned vast tracts of lumber along the Penobscot River, dozens of sawmills, a railroad, and a wharf from which lumber could be shipped. There is a small town near Bangor called Veazie. It was once part of Bangor but the General successfully led a campaign to make it an independent town because he felt Bangor taxes were too high. About 1800 people live in Veazie today.

Jones P. Veazie inherited some of the timber tracts from his father although it is possible they had already been logged by that point. He was mainly known for founding the Bangor Gazette. He bought the land for the Fountain Avenue house in 1866 but construction didn't start until 1874. It was completed in 1875, which was the year Jones died, so it is possible he never lived in the house named for him.

Out of all the well-maintained houses, this one, at the corner of Leighton and Montgomery, was my favorite. It wasn't listed on either the historical society facebook page or in the 1975 inventory of historic homes so I have no idea what architectural style it represents or when it was built, although I'd guess it was built between 1900 and 1920. It was probably considered to be too recently built to include in the 1975 inventory.

In general it seemed that the better maintained homes were at the top of the hill roughly above Congress St. Below Madison Street it seemed like the houses, if they were old, were more likely to have been altered, more likely to have been split up into rental units, and more likely to be occupied by working class people. There was something of a transition zone in the block between Congress and Madison.

This house at 212 Kenduskeag Avenue is known variously as the Cliff Cottage, the John E. Godfrey House, or the Godfrey-Kellogg House. It was built by John Godfrey in 1847 as a summer house for his family. This photo, taken from Kenduskeag Avenue looking west does make it look like the house is a small cottage. However, it is actually another example of a long, rambling Bangor dwelling with "a variety of projecting bays, gable dormers, and other architectural details." The house extends from Kenduskeag Avenue to the edge of the steep bank that leads down to the Kenduskeag Stream. It is much larger than this view implies.

Cliff Cottage, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is considered to be one of the state's best examples of Gothic Revival or Neo-Gothic Architecture. It is known for being little altered from the original construction both inside and out. Besides the house, there are also a barn, carriage house, and dog house on the property, all of which also reflect Gothic Revival architecture and are also in unaltered condition. Godfrey considered the location to be best site for a home in all of Bangor.

John Godfrey was a lawyer and the Penobscot County probate judge from 1856 to 1881. He founded the Bangor Historical Society in 1864 and was also known for keeping detailed diaries covering the years 1863 to 1884, addressing personal, and local and regional issues. They were published in a 1200-page, three-volume set.

Shown is the Captain George Poole Double House on 58 & 60 Jefferson Street. It was built in 1874 and is an example of Stick style architecture. Stick style was a "late-19th century American architectural style that was transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear stickwork (overlay board strips) on the outside walls to mimic an exposed half-timbered frame." Although it was built as a double house, it was currently split into three apartments.

The Moses Savory House on Division Street. It was built between 1843 and 1846. It is considered to be Greek Revival style. The overhang above the door is considered to be Italianate.

A closer view of the doorway overhang. Many of the more humble houses in Little City had either small covered porches or overhangs with ornate embellishments. I got interested in the porches and overhangs because there seemed to be little duplication in them. I was surprised, considering that they tended to be added to the more modest buildings, that there wasn't more repetition.

The Benjamin Weed House on the corner of Jefferson and Fountain Streets, built in 1843. Weed was the co-owner of a tannery. There is a wing off the back of the house. It is considered to be Greek Revival style. It is also sometimes referred to as the Henry Prentiss House, who later lived in it.

This house at 78 Kenduskeag is the Thomas Trickey House. It is classified as "Italianate style with a mansard facade gable." Chain and I just referred to as the asbestos house. She said someone bought it as a fixer-upper but discovered it had a major asbestos problem. Then covid struck and the cost of building materials went up. The renovation project was put on hold for a while but seemed to be back on track about the time I left.

This house at first looks like the widest side might face the street but there is a wing extending off the back of the house. From above the house is shaped like the letter T.

This carriage house is part of the property of the asbestos house. I assume the opening on the level above the garage doors was to a hayloft. Urban horses that didn't have much opportunity to get turned out to a pasture would have required a lot of hay. There are numerous garages in Little City that appear to be former carriage houses/stables. Most of them are attached to the tail end of a typical rambling house rather than free-standing like this one. Naturally, I found the state of moderate decrepitude of this building more interesting than if it had been well preserved.

This is a view of the same carriage house as seen from the rear, showing the steep slope leading down towards Kenduskeag Stream. Chain and I liked to occasionally walk down along the stream and we had seen this building two or three times. It took me multiple outings to realize that it was the same building I was seeing from the other side when we walked along Kenduskeag Avenue. Duh.

One of a number of houses in the neighborhood that still have what look to have been a former carriage house/stable with a hayloft. This house is on the corner of Leighton and Congress. The much narrower front side faces Leighton. It looks like there may have once been a narrow gap between the main house and the carriage house that has since been filled to connect the structures.

This photo shows the row of houses on Kenduskeag Avenue that includes the house that Chain was living in at the time this was written. Her house is the light green house in the middle. Chain had shown me the Bangor Historical Society Facebook page, which, among other things, had postings about various houses in Bangor, including when they were built. There was no posting for her house but I noticed there were a lot of houses, including some on the same street, that looked a lot like her's and most of them were built in the 1840s and 50s. That made me wonder how old the house was that Chain was living in.

From left to right we initially figured out the following information about the houses on her row:
42 Kenduskeag, Gustavus Sargent House, Italianate, built between 1848 and 1851;
46 Kenduskeag, Adam Wing House, Greek Revival, built between 1848 and 1851;
52 Kenduskeag, Greek Revival, built by 1853;
54 Kenduskeag, Italianate, construction date unknown;
58 Kenduskeag, Italianate, construction date unknown;
62 Kenduskeag, Jefferson Higgins House, Gothic Revival with Greek Revival doorway trim; 1851-1853;
66 Kenduskeag, Queen Anne, construction date unknown.

I've looked at information on Italianate architecture and I have no idea how a house like the one Chain was living in gets classified as Italianate---it doesn't look remotely like any of the examples. I can only assume that it has to do with some of the ornamental flourishes in the woodwork covering the porch.

Chain's house was originally built as a single family house but has since been split into two apartments. The first floor is split down the middle. The original interior stairway is part of the apartment on the left (as looking at the house from the front). A new interior stairway was added to the right apartment. Most of the floor space on the second floor goes with the left hand apartment and the entire attic goes with the right apartment. Chain's apartment, the right one, has only a narrow bathroom/utility room on the second floor and a steep stairway to the attic bedrooms. There was nothing inside Chain's apartment that gave much of a clue to the age of the building.

I don't think anyone ever uses this front entrance. The parking area is in the back and there is a back entrance.

54 Kenduskeag also had these fancy brackets underneath the eaves. In addition, her house and others in the neighborhood classified as Italianate all have a window in the attic in which the top pane has a rounded top. Without the flourishes, the house would be a very simple, plain-Jane frame house.

58 Kenduskeag, next door, looks to be the mirror image of 54. Chain's house has the small porch and the original interior stairway on the left side of the house, while both are on the right at 58. Otherwise, although they have both been altered over the years in different ways, they look very similar. I suspect they were built by the same person at about the same time. Because they resemble other "Italianate" houses in the neighborhood I thought there was a possibility they were built around the same time---the 1840s and 50s when Bangor was a timber boom town.

I thought I'd check some old maps but that just made things more confusing. This snip is from the 1875 Bird's Eye View Map of Bangor by Augustus Koch for the J.J. Stoner Co. It shows a row of five houses on the same stretch of Kenduskeag Avenue but there is no way to tell which of the houses corresponds to the houses that exist today.

Also, to add some further confusion, the houses have wings extending off their backs, which don't exist on the houses today. The gables on the fronts of the houses however are all oriented in the right direction. Was it possible that the houses on the row were all much bigger at one time and that one of them might have been 54 Kenduskeag?

Shown above is a screen snip from the 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Bangor. There were several older Sanborn maps of Bangor but 1914 was the first year that covered this part of Kenduskeag Avenue in detail. Based on the placement of the front porches, 54 and 58 clearly portray the houses that exist today. However, both show wings extending out the back that are no longer present. And there is another freestanding building behind 58. The X indicates that it was a stable. Is it possible that there was also once a stable behind 54 and that the back wings at 54 and 58 were at one time connected to the stables---in which case they would have resembled the drawings on the 1875 Bird's Eye View map?

I thought that was at least a possiblity, which meant that 54 and 58 were built before 1875 and therefore possibly at the same time as other houses nearby--- in the 1840s and 50s. Then I found the Bangor Historic Resources Inventory from 1975. It says that both 54 and 58 were built after 1875. It appears that the 1975 Inventory considered any house that was, at the time, less than 100 years old to not be a historical resource. So, they didn't determine the actual date of construction of the house---they just dismissed it as "post-1875."

The only problem with this is that there are several houses that look very similar to the house Chain lives in, including two across the street, that are documented as being built in the 1840s and 1850s and I haven't seen any that look like the house she lives in that are documented as having been built after 1875. I was talking to Corbin about my uncertainty about when 54 Kenduskeag was built. He quickly found a website for realtors on his phone that listed that both 54 and 58 Kenduskeag were built in 1900. Mystery solved. I should have just asked him to begin with. It does mean, however, that there had been other houses on the site of 54 and 58 Kenduskeag that were torn down at some point. Were the foundations reused?

Resources:
Bangor Historical Society Facebook page

Charles G. Bryant wikipedia page

Koch, Augustus. "Bird's Eye View Map of the City of Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine." 1875. J.J. Stoner Company, Madison, WI. Retrieved from the Library of Congress

Sanborn Map Company, 1914. "Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine." Retrieved from the Library of Congress

Shettleworth, Earle G. Jr., "Bangor Historical Resources Inventory, 1975." Maine Collection, 65. Accessed at https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/me_collection.65

 

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