Liam Reading straps a mask to his face and picks up a can of spray paint, eyeing the wall in front of him. After giving the can a shake, he positions it in his hand before pointing it at the wall and pressing gently on the actuator.
On the concrete expanse inside an old Bangor building is the result of hours of labor: a mural of dazzling colors depicting the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge, the Penobscot River rushing beneath it and an incredible sun just on the horizon.
This mural is part of a space that is being renovated at 60 May St. in downtown Bangor.
Andrea Beaulieu watches as Reading works, a smile on her face. Reading, a student at Rhode Island School of Design and resident of Bangor, was exactly who she was looking for to create an eye-catching piece in the space where her graphic design business, Studio Linear, will live. She wanted to move her business into a space that would be unique and far from traditional — something that would support an urban design. But her first impression of the old building and the 1,000-square-foot area that sat vacant for 12 years wasn’t a good one.
“When I first saw this place, I was like, ‘No way,’” Beaulieu said.
When she first toured the space with Louie Morrison, it was covered in signs of the 1970s, with old carpet, wood paneling and drop ceilings.
But Morrison changed Beaulieu’s mind.
In June 2015, Telford Allen of Hampden purchased 60 May St. His asset manager, Morrison, has since been handling the renovations, preparing for Studio Linear to move into one space and for a hub for Allen’s downtown real estate properties to occupy the other.
Morrison, who has worked on other renovations for several of Bangor’s historic spaces, including 40 Columbia St., knew that underneath it all there was something there that was perfect for Beaulieu’s business.
“He said, ‘Just wait,’” Beaulieu said.
The building at 60 May St. was built in 1912 and is made of reinforced concrete. Morrison and his team have worked to reclaim the original industrial appearance, which was covered in years of outdated decor.
“We love the idea of taking something that looks really ugly and making it look nice,” Morrison said.
Murray Brothers Co. wholesale grocers was the building’s first owner. As an importer and dealer in American and foreign products, it gained a reputation in Bangor as a “progressive and up-to-date spirit of modern times.” The Chamber of Commerce Journal of Maine praised the enterprise for its service to Bangor residents in an article a few years later.
“Through upright transactions, fair prices and just treatment it has annually increased its patronage and added to its reputation and prestige,” the 1915 article reads. The business advertised its “high grade” macaroni and olive oil as well as King Victor Flour, for which the company was a mill agent.
The building, which then was addressed as 17-21 Front St., sits across from the modern day Sea Dog Brewing Co. The article described the building as “handsome.” In more recent years it operated as Bangor Window Shade and Drapery, but recently, the retail spaces on the main levels have been vacant, with tenants occupying the four apartments on the upper floor.
Because the building is located in one of Bangor’s historic districts, Morrison submitted the changes he intended to make to the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission before beginning his work.
“We were going to do a vinyl shake and make it look Cape Cod style,” Morrison said.
The idea was vetoed, but the commission had another suggestion.
“They told us the history of the building, which helped us go into a completely different direction,” he said.
Morrison hired Beaulieu to create a mockup for the redesign of the exterior of the building when they were in talks about her renting the space for Studio Linear. She worked to recreate the 1912 appearance of the building’s facade in the rendering she made using Photoshop. The facade originally was made almost entirely of windows, but because of the presence of apartments on the upper level, returning the building to that design was impractical. Beaulieu instead created a look that used a series of squares to mimic the original appearance.
The building’s clean, repainted face is finished, but it took a lot of work simply to prepare it for the design.
“As we started to tear the paneling off on the inside and T1-11 [plywood siding] on the outside, we found that in between those two was all the old glass that was originally part of the building,” Morrison said.
It was an exciting find, but only briefly.
“You could just touch it and it would crumble and explode,” Morrison said.
The old glass was beyond salvaging.
“The demo process was excruciating,” he said.
After months of work, the paneling, carpeting and years of material was gone. In its place stands a building closer in appearance to the 1912 version. The only part of the structure that has not been renovated are the upper level apartments, which Morrison has plans for in the future.
Morrison and his team aren’t the only people in Bangor preserving and revamping the city’s historic buildings. Local business owners Abe and Heather Furth, who Beaulieu says have been an inspiration to her, are another example.
The Furths are renovating 26 State St. to offer more apartments to downtown Bangor. Their renovations revealed hidden history as well. The three upper floors of the building were virtually untouched since 1961, when the building was home to Bangor Cigar Manufacturing Co.
They have reused everything possible, including the old cigar humidors, which they’ve repurposed as kitchen islands
“Everything that’s old we keep,” Abe Furth said. “The building has a ton of character. We maintain that character and peel back layers of stuff that’s been put over it.”
Morrison and his team have done exactly that with their undertaking as well. Not only has the original concrete structure been revealed once more, but other pieces of the building have been preserved as well, such as the old doors on a sliding rail system that opened up to the railroad, which runs in front of the building. Keeping the history in the structure has been very important to the renovation.
As buildings in Bangor’s historic districts are bought and renovated, the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission ensures the building’s treasures are preserved.
“The question is, why is preservation important? Really, the historic buildings are a tangible link to our cultural past,” Mike Pullen, a senior architect with Ames Associates in Bangor, said. “They all offer clues to where we’ve been as a community.”
According to Pullen, years ago Bangor had access to some of the best building materials. There was high-quality granite available in Frankfort, some of the best slate was right in Monson, brick was being made across the river in Brewer, and floating down the river was dense, quality timber.
“We had high-quality products, we had a growing upper-middle class that could afford quality buildings, and we had talented local architects,” Pullen said. “The evidence of that work is still very visible in our community. It’s to those folks that we owe quite a tribute. They’re long gone, but boy I tell you, Bangor has some wonderful architecture to it.”
The original design at 60 May St. was done by Ernest Lisherness, a civil engineer who specialized in reinforced concrete construction.
“It was a very modern expression for an industrial building, so it’s important that it be preserved,” Pullen said. “There’s very few left like it in Bangor.”
Pullen also happens to be Beaulieu’s father. Although the history of the building is important to him, his daughter’s invested interest in it has been a treat as well.
“I’m so tickled that she recognizes what these buildings speak about,” Pullen said.
“One of the first things I did was invite my dad to come in,” Beaulieu said. “He knew all about this building before I did. He told me about the importance of this building.
“I get this from my dad, definitely,” she said.
Studio Linear, a small business of four employees, will soon move into its new space, offering brand, design, Web and photo services. The business, which originally was located in the Coe Building on Columbia Street, moved to Beaulieu’s home. Beaulieu hopes the new space will help the business grow.
