BANGOR, Maine — Family members of a man whose wallet was recently found under the floorboards of a historic downtown building where it had been for decades may soon be receiving the item.
Steve Robbins, 68, of Bangor and his 85-year-old sister Jeanne Hammond of Brewer both called the Bangor Daily News Friday morning to say the wallet belonged to their “Uncle Skip,” L. Wilfred MacDonald of Brewer. Their information was passed on to Roy Hubbard, a developer who is renovating the long-vacant home of Dakin’s Sporting Goods on Broad Street. His crew found the dusty leather wallet during demolition this month in between the basement ceiling and first floor floorboards.
The BDN published a story about the renovations that mentioned the recovered wallet on Thursday.
Hubbard said Friday that he planned on getting in touch with the family in the near future and returning the wallet to them. The wallet holds mostly paperwork and identification materials, such as a birth certificate and Social Security card.
Robbins is the youngest of eight children who were nieces and nephews to Wilfred and Hazel MacDonald. The MacDonalds lived at what was then 659 S. Main St. in Brewer — the last farmhouse before entering Orrington, according to Robbins.
MacDonald, born in 1904, got the nickname “Skip” during his days at Colby College, where “he was a hell of a baseball player,” and became team captain, Robbins said. He was considered by professional baseball scouts, but the baseball career never panned out, according to his nephew.
Instead, MacDonald got a job at Dakin’s Sporting Goods, where he worked as a clerk overseeing baseball, football and other sporting equipment, according to Robbins. Hazel worked at Bangor Box Company, he said.
MacDonald was likely involved in the renovation process when Dakin’s moved from Central Street to the larger Broad Street building as part of an expansion. He probably either lost or for some reason purposely left that wallet in the floor during the construction work around 1950.
Both Wilfred and Hazel MacDonald have passed away. They never had children, Robbins said, adding that “we [their nephews and nieces] were their kids.”
Robbins said his aunt and uncle were among the first, if not the first, residents of Brewer to own a television. His aunt Hazel used to invite him to her home to watch “ The Big Top, ” a circus show in the 1950s that featured Ed McMahon as a clown, but only once a month.
On Christmas Day, the large family would gather at the MacDonald home in Brewer, when they would light a fire for the only time all year. However, people were not allowed to show up before 2 p.m., Robbins said.
“They were strange people at times,” Robbins said.