Life on a Tidal River

Text by Joe Pelletier, teacher and Barbara Sprague, student. Images are from the collection of the Bangor Public Library.

Have you heard of the big fire
On April thirtieth day
Down in Bangor city
Not many miles away? (Young 1)

One of the most devastating events in Bangor’s history is the Great Fire of 1911. Over the course of 15 hours, the fire destroyed 267 buildings, 55 acres and caused over $3 million in damages throughout downtown Bangor and up Center Street Hill as far as Broadway Park. According to a contemporary newspaper, the fire was plainly visible at Bar Harbor almost 50 miles away. (Big Fire 2)

According to that 1911 edition of the Commercial it was the most destructive fire ever "visited upon a Maine city, save for the Portland conflagration of 1866." (“Bangor Fire”)

The fire began around 4:00 on the afternoon of April 30th in a hay shed owned by J. Frank Green at 176 Broad Street on the west side of the Kenduskeag Stream. It spread among the wooden warehouses along Bangor’s working waterfront. Strong winds quickly spread the fire across the Kenduskeag Stream and burned the Fairbanks Building on Exchange Street, before engulfing the Bangor Public Library and Bangor Historical Society, both of which occupied the upper floors of the Bangor Savings Bank building on lower State Street near the foot of State Street Hill. As a large crowd gathered to watch the disaster unfold, the fire consumed the Public Library’s collection of 70,000 volumes, valued at $300,000 at that time. (Whipple 9)

The fire spread northward through downtown, destroying Norumbega Hall and the Post Office before climbing the Center Street Hill and burning the residences along Center and French Streets through the evening and into the long night of April 30th. As the fire spread towards Bangor High School, the principal and several students rescued 19 typewriters and all of the school’s trophies before the fire consumed the building.

Two fatalities resulted from the fire, both from across the river in Brewer. George Abbott, a Brewer fireman, was killed when a chimney from a house on Penobscot Street fell on him while he was fighting a fire there. The second fatality was John Scribner, a 70 year old cobbler, who was killed at the corner of Exchange and State Streets when a wall from the Morse-Oliver building collapsed. Falling telephone and electrical wires hampered his rescue, and Scribner died at the scene.

We little realized going through the heart of town the horrible change we would find. It was so light when we got [to] the tin bridge that we didn't need head lights and when struck there the flames looked miles high in front of us and you can imagine the feelings when got in sight of the Universalist Church and saw it a mass of flames. (Rowe)

A firewall at the foot of Hammond Street Hill saved City Hall with its notable clock tower. Firefighters were forced to dynamite the Universalist Church on Park Street to keep the fire from spreading further along the side of the hill, but the fire would continue to spread up French Street and Broadway as far as Broadway Park. A late night rain helped firefighters gain the upper hand on the conflagration, and the last embers were doused by 7:00 a.m. on the morning of May 1, 1911. The exact cause of the fire has never been determined, although some residents believed that a weekly poker game with youthful players may have caused the fire in the hay barn, perhaps from a carelessly discarded cigarette. Others speculated that a spark from a passing locomotive was the cause. Weather conditions and an uncommon southerly wind provided a perfect storm of conditions for a major conflagration.

While onlookers flooded into the destroyed downtown to see the devastation, Bangor residents immediately began plans to rebuild the burned district. City officials guided the city’s Phoenix rise from the ashes, and sought to incorporate a centralized park along the banks of the Kenduskeag Stream to act as both open space and firebreak through the middle of downtown. A Civic Improvement Committee worked with a Boston consultant to make recommendations to rebuild and improve the city. Most of the churches and homes that were destroyed along French, Park and Center Streets were rebuilt, along with a synagogue on Center Street.