Great Fire of 1911
Encyclopedia
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
. A small fire that started in a Downtown shed went out of control and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings.
History
It started in the afternoon of April 30, 1911 on Broad Street. High winds had spread it to a shed on Exchange Street and the Universalist Church on Center Street by 4:10 PM, from where it spread into the residential neighborhood on Center Street Hill. In 1907, the National Board of Fire Underwriters had mapped the fire geography of Bangor, and predicted that a large fire could have spread from that area.The fire eventually became so large that the glow in the sky could be seen in Belfast
Belfast, Maine
Belfast is a city in Waldo County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 6,668. Located at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River on Penobscot Bay, Belfast is the county seat of Waldo County...
. It was brought under control on Monday morning, May 1, 1911, but before it was out, it destroyed much of Downtown Bangor. The Post Office, the Custom House, and Norumbega
Norumbega
Norumbega was a legendary settlement in northeastern North America, inextricably connected with attempts to demonstrate Viking incursions in New England...
Hall were lost, along with the three buildings of Bangor High School
Bangor High School (Bangor, Maine)
Bangor High School, a member of the Bangor School System, is a high school in Bangor, Maine. It has an enrollment of over 1400 students in grades 9-12....
and the Bangor Public Library. Somehow, City Hall survived, despite being in the direct path of the fire. The library's collection of 70,000 volumes was destroyed, along with much of the Bangor Historical Society's collection. An attempt to slow the fire by dynamiting buildings in its path failed. A light rain that began overnight did much to bring the fire under control. In total, 285 residences, 100 businesses, and 6 churches were destroyed, doing $3.2 million damage and leaving hundreds homeless. Before the fire, insurance companies had considered Bangor a good risk.
Remarkably, only two lives were lost: one Brewer
Brewer, Maine
Brewer is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Bangor, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after its first settler, Colonel John Brewer. The population was 9,482 at the 2010 census....
man when a wall collapsed on him, and one firefighter who was killed by a falling chimney.
Fire crews were called from as far away as Lewiston
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
and Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
. After the telephone company caught fire, the wire chief climbed a pole and cut in on a trunk line to make aid calls. One team that was sent up from Boston, Massachusetts ended up fighting a fire in Portland when their train stopped there.
Carrère and Hastings
Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...
and Peabody and Stearns
Peabody and Stearns
Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody and John Goddard Stearns, Jr...
), as well as local designers Wilfred E. Mansur
Wilfred E. Mansur
Wilfred E. Mansur was the most prominent architect in late 19th and early 20th Century Bangor, Maine. He designed many private and municipal buildings, including the Penobscot County Courthouse and at least seven schools...
, C. Parker Crowell, and Victor Hodgins. A large portion of the rebuilt area (43 buildings) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1984 as the Great Fire of 1911 Historic District
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...
.