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Great Fire of 1911 Historic District

The Great Fire of 1911 Historic District is located in downtown Bangor, Maine, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. It preserves Maine's most significant collection of early 20th century public and commercial buildings, and commemorates an urban re-building campaign matched only by Portland's following its own destruction by fire in 1866. The Great Fire of 1911 was Maine's last large-scale urban conflagrations, but resulted in the creation of an early 20th-century urban space relatively unique in Maine or northern New England. The district comprises 48 buildings , most of them constructed between 1911 and 1915 in the burned area, which accounted for half of Bangor's commercial core. Stylistically, the rebuilding was mainly a showcase for the Renaissance Revival, but with elements of the Romanesque Revival, Chicago School, Prairie Style, Art Deco, Classical Revival, and Colonial Revival. The designs were contributed by a number of nationally-prominent architectural firms, including Peabody and Stearns; Carrere and Hastings; and Jardine, Kent, and Murdoch; as well as U.S. government architect Oscar Wenderoth, and local architects C. Parker Crowell, Wilfred E. Mansur, Victor Hodgins, and Frederick A. Patterson. Every building except one is of brick, though some are steel-framed, two are faced with terra-cotta, and two are completely sheathed in granite. The coloration and patterning of the brickwork is extremely varied. Architecturally significant buildings within the Great Fire District include the: Bangor Public Library, 1912, Peabody and Stearns Bangor High School , 1912, Peabody and Stearns Morse Building (now University of Maine art gallery), 1914-1915, Victor Hodgins First National Bank Bangor Hydro Electric Building, 1915, Wilfred E. Mansur Exchange Building, 1913, Peabody and Stearns Bangor Savings Bank Building, 1912, Carrere and Hastings Eastern Trust Building, 1912, C. Parker Crowell Graham Building, 1911, Wilfred E. Mansur. One of the first and largest buildings constructed, commissioned by John R. Graham, President of the Bangor Hydro Electric Company, and a prime mover in the rebuilding. Stearns Block, 1911, Wilfred E. Mansur Stetson Block, 1911, Wilfred E. Mansur Bangor Post Office (now City Hall), 1914-1915, Oscar Wenderoth Three of the district's architecturally-significant buildings were constructed somewhat later, in the 1920s and 1930s, most prominently the Bangor Telephone Exchange (1931), designed in Art Deco style in 1931 by the Boston architectural firm of Densmore, LeClear, and Robbins, and the most prominent example of that style in Maine. A few other important buildings within the district actually pre-date the fire, including the Tarratine Club by Parker, Thomas, and Rice of Boston, and the Nichols Block by Wilfred Mansur of Bangor. The district also includes three parks: Norumbega Mall (laid out 1933, on site of the burned Norumbega Hall Kenduskeag Mall (1912), Warren H. Manning, which includes a bronze statue of Hannibal Hamlin Pierce Park (1912), which includes a bronze statue of river drivers

Bangor Public Library

The Bangor Public Library is the public library of Bangor, Maine. It shares the URSUS online cataloging system with the University of Maine and other Maine libraries. The library's roots date to 1830, when the Bangor Mechanic Association assembled a private collection of books. In 1873, it absorbed several other associations' libraries and became the Bangor Mechanic Association Public Library. In 1883, former U.S. Congressman and lumber baron Samuel F. Hersey left the City of Bangor a $100,000 bequest, which the city used to form a municipally owned public library. The Mechanic Association's 20,000 books formed the core collection. In 1905, the small membership fee was abolished and the library became truly open to all. By 1911, the library's collection had grown to 70,000 books. Then came the Great Fire of 1911, which destroyed the library along with most of the Bangor Business District. The library reopened that May with the 29 books pulled from the ashes and 1,300 others that had been on loan. (Today, the library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Great Fire of 1911 Historic District.) In 1913, the library's new building, designed by the Boston architectural firm Peabody and Stearns, opened its doors near the high school. In 1997, the library was renovated and a new wing added (designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects), thanks to a donation from Stephen and Tabitha King. King's story The Library Policeman was inspired by his 10-year-old son's expressed fear of returning overdue books to the Bangor Public Library because of "the library police". In 2014, the library was being renovated; plans included a new glass atrium designed by Scott Simons Architects.

Mount Hope Cemetery

Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine, is the second oldest garden cemetery in the United States. It was designed by architect Charles G. Bryant in 1834 and built by the Bangor Horticultural Society soon after, the same year that Bangor was incorporated as a city. The cemetery was modeled after Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. Bangor was at that time a frontier boom-town, and much of its architecture and landscaping mirrored exactly that of Boston. The land was purchased in July 1834 and consisted of 50 acres of Lot 27, which was set along State Street - at the time known as County Road and later the "Road to Orono" - and the Penobscot River. It did not include all of the cemetery's central hill; instead, it cut across the crest of the hill and met up with what would later be Mount Hope Avenue. The land was approximately 660 by 3,300 feet with the longer side travelling north-south along State Street. Part of the land - approximately 12 acres - was to be set aside for horticultural activities, and the rest of the land was to be used as a cemetery. The preferred resting ground for Bangor's 19th- and early-20th-century elite, the cemetery includes the gravesites of a U.S. Vice President, two U.S. Senators, eleven U.S. Congressmen, two U.S. Ambassadors, five Governors of Maine, eight Civil War Generals, and numerous "lumber barons" and other local businessmen and politicians. Actors Richard Golden and Ralph Sipperly are also buried there. The movie Pet Sematary was filmed in Mount Hope.

University of Maine Museum of Art

University of Maine Museum of Art is an art museum in downtown Bangor, Maine. It is part of the University of Maine, which is located in nearby Orono, Maine. The University of Maine Art Collection was established in 1946 under the leadership of Vincent Hartgen. As the initial faculty member of the Department of Art and curator of the Art Collection, Hartgen’s goal was to provide the people of Maine with significant opportunities to experience and learn about the visual arts and their diverse histories and cultural meanings. In the early 1980s the University Art Collection became the University of Maine Museum of Art. Through the cooperative effort and vision of the City of Bangor and the University of Maine, the museum relocated in December 2002 to downtown Bangor where it has taken on a new role as a regional fine arts center. The facility was designed by the Boston firm, Ann Beha Architects, an now occupies the first floor of Norumbega Hall, a historic downtown building that formerly housed a department store. The Bangor facility, while allowing the museum to showcase a greater proportion of its collection, also enhances the burgeoning arts scene of the region’s largest city. The Museum of Art remains the only institution owned by the citizens of the State of Maine to house a permanent fine arts collection – one which has grown to a stature that makes it a nucleus in the state for historic and contemporary art. Consisting of more than 3500 original works of art, the collection is particularly strong in American mid-20th century works on paper. Contemporary highlights of the collection include works by David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Edward Hopper, Pablo Picasso, and Edward Burtynsky. Additionally, the museum’s permanent collection celebrates the long heritage of Maine art and artists; including works by artists such as Berenice Abbott, Marsden Hartley, Winslow Homer, John Marin, Carl Sprinchorn, and Andrew Wyeth. In addition to making the University’s collection more accessible to the public, the downtown location enables the museum to expand its educational programs beyond the confines of the Orono campus. The Museum of Art hosts an annual calendar of exhibitions featuring contemporary artists and ideas. Among the museum’s educational offerings are art camps for children lectures, special events, family programming, and educational classes and workshops for adults.

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