History

It wasn’t one of Bangor’s grand houses, of which there are plenty – it was a prosperous town, after all. It was what’s often referred to as a Italinate/Folk Victorian: rectangular main section, gable end to the street, second gable on the side to create a bump-out, narrower kitchen ell in the back, just like dozens, maybe hundreds like it. It sat with several others like it on what would become a major street. Like many of its type, it had substantial decorative brackets and dentils under the eaves and entablatures over the windows. But this house had had some attention lavished upon it – a large portico, broad double doors, a fine newel post, thick mouldings throughout, a curved door set into a curved interior wall.

Over the years, others added details. The second floor rooms received hardwood flooring. The front and back parlors were combined into one room. The slate fireplace in the back parlour was crowned with a large mirror and rococo woodwork. The front portico was enclosed with 9-foot tall windows and beautiful cherry doors fitted with Eastlake-style hardware. A fire damaged the back of the building and the ell was remodeled. A basement-to-attic staircase was removed, the kitchen moved back and a dining room created, with stained-glass windows, no less.
Over the years its fortunes declined, as did the city as a whole. A family died out, rooms were rented out, plumbing was added and removed. Other families moved in. Dreams were ended by divorce. In the early 2000’s it was purchased by a developer with the intention of breaking it up into apartments. A new 20′ x 30′ addition was started in the rear. Then the developer ran afoul of the zoning board, the project was abandoned and the house stood empty except for the pigeons that lived in the addition.

In 2007 my wife Judy and I decided it was time to leave Tennessee and return to Maine. This began a two-fold effort to find a suitable place in Maine (her job) and to get our house ready to sell (my job). To find a house, Judy turned to the internet. At least five candidates were checked out by our Bangor support team (my sister and brother-in-law, an ex-housing inspector). In each case the verdict was: run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. Finally this one showed up and the word from the team was “this is the one”. It was perfect for us.
When I say it was perfect for us, you have to understand that we were not looking for a beautiful, finished jewel. I had a good job and was paid reasonably well, but we were not flush with cash. We had a house in Tennessee that still needed work. Hence we needed something we could get into cheaply, and that could be improved over time by someone with energy and a bit of skill.

We moved in on January 1st, 2010. Work began in April.