Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire
On April 30, 1911, a fire ignited in Frank Green's hay shed that changed the city of Bangor forever. From the ashes of the Great Fire, the logging and mill town emerged as a modernized metropolis. In this collection of retrospective articles, Wayne E. Reilly takes a look at the town of Bangor in the years before the fire, when illegal barrooms and brothels were as rampant as the outbreaks of typhoid and smallpox. He explores Bangor in its boomtown days, when ice harvesting and logging were thriving industries, steamboats ferried passengers between cities and a lively theatre scene drew audiences to see the little Broadway in the Great North Woods. One look through this vibrant window into the past will leave you with your nose pressed to the glass, nostalgic for the olden days of Maine's Queen City.
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Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire
On April 30, 1911, a fire ignited in Frank Green's hay shed that changed the city of Bangor forever. From the ashes of the Great Fire, the logging and mill town emerged as a modernized metropolis. In this collection of retrospective articles, Wayne E. Reilly takes a look at the town of Bangor in the years before the fire, when illegal barrooms and brothels were as rampant as the outbreaks of typhoid and smallpox. He explores Bangor in its boomtown days, when ice harvesting and logging were thriving industries, steamboats ferried passengers between cities and a lively theatre scene drew audiences to see the little Broadway in the Great North Woods. One look through this vibrant window into the past will leave you with your nose pressed to the glass, nostalgic for the olden days of Maine's Queen City.
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Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire

Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire

by Wayne E. Reilly
Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire
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Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire

Remembering Bangor: The Queen City Before the Great Fire

by Wayne E. Reilly

Overview

On April 30, 1911, a fire ignited in Frank Green's hay shed that changed the city of Bangor forever. From the ashes of the Great Fire, the logging and mill town emerged as a modernized metropolis. In this collection of retrospective articles, Wayne E. Reilly takes a look at the town of Bangor in the years before the fire, when illegal barrooms and brothels were as rampant as the outbreaks of typhoid and smallpox. He explores Bangor in its boomtown days, when ice harvesting and logging were thriving industries, steamboats ferried passengers between cities and a lively theatre scene drew audiences to see the little Broadway in the Great North Woods. One look through this vibrant window into the past will leave you with your nose pressed to the glass, nostalgic for the olden days of Maine's Queen City.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781596295902
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date: 04/01/2009
Series: American Chronicles
Pages: 128
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Wayne E. Reilly worked for the Bangor Daily News for 28 years as a reporter, and editorial writer, and an assignment editor. His free-lance writing has appeared in many other publications, and his work has won many professional and civic awards. Using family diaries and letters, he has edited two books, Sarah Jane Foster: Teacher of the Freedmen and The Diaries of Sarah Jane and Emma Ann Foster: A Year in Maine During the Civil War. Since his retirement from the Bangor Daily News, he has written more than 250 columns on Maine and Bangor for the newspaper. He holds a BA from Bowdoin College and an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri.

Table of Contents

Preface 9

The Last of the Lumbermen

From Lumber to Cigars, Bangor Was a Manufacturing Town 13

Harbor's "Maze of Masts" Was Declining 16

William Conners, Log King of the Penobscot 20

Fred Ayer and Eastern Manufacturing 23

Bangoreans Loved Ice 27

The New Bangoreans

Immigrant Tensions 31

Italians Built Railroads, Mills, Dams and More 34

Narcissus A. Matheas, African American Entrepreneur 38

Bangor Irish Worked Hard and Profited 41

Trains, Boats and Automobiles

John R. Graham Made the Trolleys Run On Time 45

When Boston Boats Collided 49

The B&A's Push to the Sea 52

New Train Station Meant Bangor Had Arrived 55

Bangor's First Speeding Ticket 58

Bangoreans Loved a Holiday

Mayhem Ruled on the Fourth 61

Thanksgiving Offered Plenty of Entertainment Besides Eating 64

The Mysterious Christmas Baby 67

"Meet Me at Freese's" 70

Excursions Were a Popular Summer Diversion 72

Bangor Was a Show Town-and a Sporting Town

Eastern Maine State Fair Was Summer Highlight 77

Bangor Opera House Brought Broadway to the Queen City 80

Bangor's First Movie Theatre 83

Roller-Skating Craze Helped Finance Opera 86

Bangor Won the Pennant... With Old Sock's Help 89

Bad Bangor

Bangoreans Couldn't Stop Liquor Flow-Even When They Tried 93

The Bad Girls of Harlow Street 97

When Slot Machines Dispensed Cigars 100

The Search for Minot St. Clair Francis 102

The Great Crime Wave of 1906 104

Illness and Fire: Threats to Public Health

Polluted Drinking Water Caused Typhoid Epidemic of 1904 109

TB and the Battle Over Sweeping the Bridge 113

Smoldering Dumps Posed Nuisance 115

Horse Pollution Kept Street Crews Busy 117

Waterfront Fire ProvidedPreview of Horrors to Come 120

Bibliography 125

About the Author 128

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