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Bangor Lumbering & The Fire of 1911

MPBN Producer Barbara Noyes Pulling talks about the challenge of telling the story of Bangor's illustrious past as the "Lumber Capital of the World" in a way that it hadn't been widely told before. In combing through the archival images from this era of the mid-to-late 1800's, she saw photos depicting Bangor buildings of that day that look little like those we see there now. Then the answer becomes obvious -- the 1911 fire that charred 55 acres and destroyed 300 buildings in, the worst disaster in Bangor's history, brought home the necessity of finding more durable and less fire-prone materials, giving rise to the granite and brick structures that dominate today's architecture in Bangor.

 

   

Funding for production of Maine Experience was provided in part by: Elsie Viles, Cynthia Crocker, the Richard Bresnahan Family, Harry and Susan Konkel, the Borman Family Foundation, Henrietta Farnum Stewart, Randy Phelps and Pamela Daley, the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Judith and Joe Kaminski and Calista L. Harder.