A vivid reconstruction of a once-vibrant African American community in northern New England.

Bangor is a city that has grown in many ways since Jacob Buswell and his family, the first white settlers, built their log cabin by the Penobscot River in 1769. Over the course of the nineteenth century, Bangor developed into a cosmopolitan center of Maine, but to this day it retains some of the proud characteristics of a town that was once the lumbering capital of the world. Collected in this fascinating visual history are over 200 photographs that together reflect the city's rich and diverse history. The photographs show more than a century of change, with stirring images of four-masted schooners in the harbor, of log drives, of floods, and of fires. People fill the book: Amelia Earhart and Presidents Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Kennedy pictured on visit; the Brady Gang, shot by the FBI in 1937 as the nation's most wanted criminals; and especially the hardworking men and women who built Bangor into the "Queen City of the East."

Few New England cities have changed as much as, Bangor has in the twentieth century. Much of Bangor's, downtown burned to the ground in the Great Fire of, 1911, and disastrous flooding in 1902, 1923, and 1936, inflicted extensive damage along the Penobscot River, and Kenduskeag Stream. Even more devastating, in the, eyes of historians, were the losses due to Urban Renewal,, like the Union Station (1961) and the Bijou Theater, (1974). But Bangor survives with its early charm and, appeal remarkably intact. Familiar friends and places are, represented in this book, alongside the glorious landmarks, and familiar personalities of yesteryear., In this fascinating second volume, Richard R. Shaw has, carried his devotion to Bangor history a step further, this, time focusing on the twentieth century. Key events and, people of all walks of life are featured--librarians, firemen,, cops, even visiting dignitaries like Harry Truman, Eleanor, Roosevelt, and Jack Benny. Contemporary folk, like, novelist Stephen King, Bangor's spookiest and best-known, resident, are abundantly pictured. Included are nearly 200, rare images from every decade of this century, with an, emphasis on the pivotal World War II years when the city, went all out to win the war on the homefront.,

On April 30, 1911, a fire ignited in Frank Greens 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 Maines Queen City.

Located in Northampton County, Bangor and the surrounding Slate Belt towns lie just a few miles from the Pocono Mountains and the Delaware River. The area's slate formations transformed the towns from sleepy farming communities to major producers and suppliers of slate to the world. Enterprising immigrants, including the Welsh, Italians, Cornish, and Pennsylvania Germans, opened a number of industries and businesses in the area, including slate quarries, garment factories, opera houses, hospitals, and retail stores. Trolley cars, major railroads, and a colorful Dentzel carousel became part of the area, as did some famous residents, such as actress Jayne Mansfield and award-winning pharmacist Ivor Griffith. Around Bangor is a testiment to the drive, hardiness, and community spirit of its residents.

The first settlers of what would become Bangor, Maine, established a community initially known as Kenduskeag Plantation, and since that time, generations of residents have relied on the Penobscot River for food, water, recreation, industry and transportation--it has provided a route to the ocean and to the world. The people of Bangor created a community that has remained dedicated not only to economic growth but also to providing for the needs of the impoverished. A leading port city and the "lumber capital of the world" during the nineteenth century, Bangor also claims America's second oldest garden cemetery, an unrivaled public library, the nation's oldest community orchestra and one of its oldest community bands. Citizens of Bangor have served in the Civil War and all subsequent American military engagements. They have overcome fires and floods that decimated the city and epidemics that devastated the population. They have known colorful and notorious characters, such as local brothel owner Fan Jones and America's public enemy number one, Al Brady, as well as dedicated individuals and families who have served as community leaders and caretakers year after year, decade after decade. And they have adapted to such modern socioeconomic challenges as evolving transportation methods, the Ku Klux Klan, urban renewal and the city's shift to a distribution and service center. Historian Trudy Irene Scee presents all of this and more in this full history of the Queen City of the East.

Since its settlement in 1769, Bangor's greatest resource has been its people. Long before 1834, when the town on the Penobscot became a city, future legends were born who transformed it into a world-class community. Hannibal Hamlin served as Abraham Lincoln's first vice president. Timber tycoon Sam Hersey financed urban development while less affluent folk such as Molly Molasses also made their mark. When philanthropists Stephen and Tabitha King are not writing best-selling novels, they are spreading their wealth throughout the community. Bangor's melting pot includes the Italian Baldacci family and the Jewish baker Reuben Cohen, who, with his wife Clara, raised their son Bill, a US senator and defense secretary. More infamous but equally legendary is brothel keeper Fanny Jones. Paul Bunyan earned a statue on Main Street. Airport troop greeters Kay Lebowitz and Bill Knight round out the list of notables. They are all jewels in Bangor's crown, and each in their own way is a bona fide legend.