Articles by Wayne E. Reilly
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bangor trolley took off ‘like a bullet’
Bangor’s electric trolley system, just 23 years old a century ago, was a wonder to behold, connecting downtown Bangor with the city’s outskirts as well as nearby towns like Hampden, Old Town and Charleston. Workers, the elderly, youngsters, poor people and others without horses or automobiles could travel cheaply and ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Gas blast rocked Bangor a century ago
A huge explosion reverberated through downtown Bangor just after 3 p.m. on April 26, 1912, a century ago last week. A blast in an old brick reservoir under busy Mercantile Square left a crater 30 feet in diameter, unsealing a piece of the city’s infrastructure that most people had forgotten ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bijou marked Bangor’s entertainment pinnacle
Bangor’s most elegant theater — more glamorous today perhaps because it was torn down shortsightedly during Urban Renewal — opened a century ago this week. The Titanic had sunk a few days before, but doubtlessly, for some who attended the grand opening, the hoopla surrounding the Bijou Theater’s second coming ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
First presidential salmon sent a century ago
One of the rituals that defined the Queen City of the East each spring was the annual contest to see who would catch the first Atlantic salmon at the famous salmon pool in the Penobscot River between Bangor and Brewer. One of the top contenders for the prize in the ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
What happened to Captain and Mrs. Fickett?
Bangoreans were used to reading about shipwrecks, but when they picked up their newspapers Monday morning, Feb. 19, 1912, they were confronted by a shocking story that could have come straight from the pages of Joseph Conrad. The three-masted ship Erne had been disabled at sea in a titanic storm ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bangor greeted cold with enthusiasm in early 1900s
Winter started early in Bangoreans’ minds a century ago. Long before the snow and ice appeared, they were thinking of ways to make the best of the harsh times ahead in the era before central heating and jets to Orlando. ICE YACHTS READY, proclaimed the Bangor Daily Commercial in early ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bangor prospered as sawmills declined
SAWMILLS FEWER, BANGOR BIGGER This seemingly nonsensical headline, which appeared in the Bangor Daily News a century ago this month, means little to most readers today. Its irony would have been obvious, however, to the average Bangorean in 1912. Sawmills had once been a barometer of economic health. The Queen ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Commercial fairs helped Bangor rise from the ashes
Commercial shows sponsored by various merchant groups helped jump-start Bangor’s revival after the big fire of April 30, 1911. The Queen City of the East had been the area’s trade and transportation hub before the fire, and it just kept getting bigger afterwards thanks to the tireless activities of its ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
‘Jobbing trade’ gave Bangor economic backbone
Bangor rapidly rose from the ashes after the great fire of April 30, 1911. By October, 40 new houses were either completed or being built. By December, the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad and some other tenants were mostly moved into the new six-story Graham Building at Harlow and Central streets. ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Tuberculosis crusade galvanized Bangor
An oddly titled editorial, THE ONE-LUNGERS GET BUSY, appeared in the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 8, 1911. The subject was not the new one-cylinder boat engines, also called one-lungers, that could be heard chugging up and down the Penobscot River. Rather it was about the treatment of victims of ...
WAYNE REILLY
Kitchen barrooms targeted by Bangor police 100 years ago
OUR CITY — ITS PRIDE AND SHAME: That was the title of the Rev. Christopher W. Collier’s sermon at Hammond Street Congregational Church on Sunday morning, Nov. 19, 1911, a century ago. Being one of the most prominent clerics in the Queen City and given the importance of his subject, ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
‘Auto hunting’ captivated Bangoreans a century ago
HUNT WITH AUTOS, asserted a Bangor Daily Commercial headline on Sept. 23, 1911, a few short weeks before the hunting season opened. The subheads continued: The Sport Will be Popular With Bangor People This Fall … CAMPING BY ROAD SIDE … Many Ingenious Devices to Add to the Comfort of ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Telegraph, telephone, wireless revolutionized communications a century ago
“IN TWO MINUTES: New Record for Communications Between Bangor and N.Y.” A new “direct wire service” had been installed between Bangor and New York City, said the story under the headline in the Bangor Daily Commercial on Nov. 4, 1911, a century ago this month. “Bangor is a great deal ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bangor sold popular park for new post office
The era of political good feeling that followed Bangor’s great fire of April 30, 1911 ended abruptly on May 25 with an editorial blast condemning the recommendations of the committee appointed to restore and beautify the burned area. “Jules Verne in his palmiest days never evolved a more ridiculous or ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Aunt Hat’s notorious roadhouse burned a century ago
Harriet S. Foyer, alias Aunt Hat, was the most notorious madam in the Bangor area at the beginning of the twentieth century. Her bawdy house in Veazie on Shore Road overlooking the Penobscot River was an occasional target of sheriff’s deputies and even the Bangor police. Maintaining a house of ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bangoreans loved sailing and paddling canoes made locally
Bangoreans venerated their canoes and canoe makers a century ago. The motorboat was the newest fad for those who loved speed and the smell of gasoline, but the ancient canoe, invented by Native Americans using native materials, had deeper meaning. By then, canoes manufactured commercially in the Bangor area were ...
WAYNE E. REILLY
Bull charged auto near old Bangor
This headline appeared in the Bangor Daily Commercial on June 29, 1911. BULL CHARGES AUTO Two Women Saved by O’Connor’s Revolver on Ellsworth R’d The heroic age of the automobile occurred about a century ago. Besides mechanical aptitude, you needed a lot of courage to drive one of the new ...
Maine ‘drys’ won another round a century ago
A century ago next week, Mainers went to the polls to approve a direct primary law allowing them to vote for the nomination of political party candidates in primary elections, including seats in the U.S. Senate and House and the state Legislature. Democracy was on the march. But did anyone ...
Aeroplane fever gripped Bangor a century ago
Bangoreans had “aeroplane” fever a century ago. They had seen parachutists jump from balloons and a dirigible float around the fairground at Maplewood Park. Now, they were craning their necks hoping to see one of the new, heavier-than-air aeroplanes come bursting from the clouds. Imaginations ran wild. Strange lights in ...
Wireless arrived in Bangor by boat
Bangoreans could feel a little safer when they took the Boston boats beginning in the summer of 1911 a century ago. The Eastern Steamship Co. was required to install wireless systems by July 1. A new federal law required wireless communication capability on steamers carrying 50 passengers and “going along ...
Glenburn art teacher killed in Friday morning collision in Bangor
Harvard student asked to leave bar for ‘bad behavior,’ not drunkenness
LePage blasts teachers union for endorsing same-sex marriage question
Reporting crime
A people’s revolt in Bar Harbor
Old Town football coach steps down
Perakslis helps UMaine beat Albany; Binghamton next in America East tournament
Orono baseball shuts out archrival Old Town for ninth straight victory
Stony Brook knocks out UMaine to win America East tournament
Aroostook businessman expands company out of home with hit mobile app 7 Little Words
Former CEO of MaineToday Media Richard Connor sued over $250,000 in loans
Small idea launches major project in Hampden
Diversity predicts export success, MIT professor tells Maine audience
New, old methods combine to deter scrap metal thefts in Aroostook
Gary Allan talks with the BDN leading up to Bangor concert
Out of the ashes, Central Street’s garden grows
Mid Coast Actor’s Studio provides new forum for classic plays
Signs lead artist to opportunity
Bangor Daily News
Account
Start a blog
Post News
Post Events
See it. Fix it.
Subscribe