BANGOR, Maine — It will be a homecoming of sorts when the Bangor Symphony Orchestra returns to the Nichols Block in September, becoming the first tenant in the space since its purchase last year.
The BSO, founded in 1896, signed a lease on the top two floors of the interconnected buildings located at 187-193 Exchange St., known as the Nichols Block, on Wednesday. In its early days, the BSO played concerts in that space. Now, the organization will move its offices there in September, where it will share second floor space with Launchpad, a Bangor-based arts nonprofit that runs the Central Gallery on Central Street, and with Bangor Ballet, which will move its office from the State Street location it shared with Thomas School of Dance. (Thomas School of Dance isn’t moving.)
“ We saw the photos of the space in the BDN last year, and we knew we had to see it,” said Brian Hinrichs, executive director of the BSO. “The owner, Adam [Moskovitz], shared his vision that he wanted this building to come back to life with the arts. It was built in 1892, and this ballroom was known as Society Hall. The symphony actually performed here when it first started back in [1896]. It just seemed to make sense. It felt right.”
The space will be known as the Bangor Arts Exchange, in the hopes that it will become a hub for downtown arts programming. As part of the lease, the BSO and Launchpad will also take over management of the third-floor grand ballroom, a 185-capacity concert and function hall.
The ballroom will serve as a rehearsal space for the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as host concerts from the BSO’s smaller ensembles and recitals from visiting artists. Launchpad is expected to host local and national bands, artists and other performers there as part of its ongoing concert series.
The trio of arts organizations are leasing the property from ANM Properties, a property management firm owned by Bangor resident Moskovitz, that purchased six Exchange Street buildings, including the Nichols Block, as one 53,000-square-foot property, for an undisclosed price on Oct. 24, 2016 from the family of Eaton W. Tarbell Jr., whose father was a well-known Bangor architect.
“To have one of the most historic and longest running orchestras in the country be among the first organizations to locate in the Exchange Street block of buildings is an ideal fit,” said Moskovitz. “The fabric and history of this community is important to us as a company, and that’s one of the main reasons we made this investment. We are happy to see that the [BSO] sees that historic value, while also seeing the benefits to being located within the activity center of Downtown Bangor.”
The Nichols Block was the only building on Exchange Street to survive the Great Bangor Fire of 1911. The buildings retain a number of historic touches including tall arched windows with old-fashioned shutters in the ballroom, that overlook a remarkable view of the downtown Bangor cityscape. The Nichols Block was last occupied by Sweetser, a non-profit that held the lease it for nearly a decade until ANM purchased the buildings. That organization maintained a handful of offices in the lower floors of the Nichols Block until last year.
However, the ballroom itself has largely lain dormant since the 1960s, aside from a handful of rental-based events held sporadically over the years. That stopped in 2007, and the ballroom has been unused and vacant since.
In its heyday, the ballroom — then known as Society Hall — was at the center of Bangor society, playing host to countless dances, recitals and other functions. A 1908 Bangor Daily Commercial article noted that Horace Mann Pullen, the BSO’s first conductor, not only led the orchestra in performances at Society Hall, but also taught dancing lessons there. It’s not known exactly when the BSO stopped performing there, but Hinrichs believes it was sometime around 1910.
A 2005 Bangor Daily News article noted that the Bill Stetson Orchestra, a local big band, would play dances in the ballroom in the 1950s, and the crowd was so big the floor would bounce up and down.
“To hear music again, in these historic walls, in this beautiful space — that’s a pretty special thing,” said Lucas Richman, music director of the BSO. “The possibilities are enormous.”
Since November, the BSO has been working with Moskovitz to arrange the terms of the deal, bringing Launchpad and Bangor Ballet on board in December. It was decided that the BSO and the other organizations would occupy the second and third floors only, while the street-level first floor will remain open for a potential other tenant to move in. The balcony in the ballroom — technically a fourth-floor space, with an adjoining kitchen and storage space — will be included in the lease, though seating will not be available in the balcony due to fire code restrictions. It’s unclear if the organizations will utilize this space.
The BSO’s administrative offices have been housed at the Quirk House on Broadway, owned by Husson University, since 2007. That location was donated to the BSO, a gift that allowed the orchestra to slash overhead costs, and weather a period of financial distress that, over the past decade, it has managed to climb out of.
“Honestly, without Husson’s generosity, we wouldn’t even be in a place where we’d be able to do something like move into this new space,” said Hinrichs.
Hinrichs said that the partnership with Launchpad and Bangor Ballet will significantly help to defray the costs of rent, and that the combination of new sponsorship opportunities in the space, plus new funds from third party rentals of the ballroom, have made the move financially possible. Hinrichs did not disclose the rent amounts.
Among the other benefits of the BSO moving into the new building was the ability for the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra to have its own dedicated rehearsal space. The BSO presently rents Peakes Auditorium from Bangor High School for its BSYO rehearsals. The new space will allow for greater flexibility for scheduling, as well as for potential growth in terms of what the BSYO can offer to students and to the community.
“The youth orchestra is our next generation of musicians, and making that music in this space is pretty special. We hope, by our presence here, it will attract more arts organizations into downtown,” said Richman.
Beyond becoming the new home of the BSYO, the move also allows the BSO to offer much more regular programming beyond its Master Works concert series, which will continue to be held at the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono.
“We can consolidate all our efforts into one place, between our chamber series, our jazz series, our educational programming, and everything else we do,” said Hinrichs. “And we can open it up to the rest of the community, for Launchpad’s programming, for rentals, weddings, parties, you name it … it really fills a void in downtown in terms of a venue of this size.”
Launchpad, run by Managing Director Joshua Gass and Executive Director Meg Shorette, has for the past three years hosted artists and bands in its tiny 49-capacity Central Gallery space on Central Street.
“It really couldn’t have worked out better,” said Gass. “We needed to expand. This is the perfect space to do it in. And we already have a partnership with the BSO, since we’ve hosted a number of events with them at the gallery. It really allows us to grow and do even more with the arts in downtown Bangor.”
Launchpad plans to close Central Gallery this fall, moving all programming to the Bangor Arts Exchange, Gass said. That location can host both larger shows in the ballroom, and small, intimate shows in the brick-walled gallery adjacent to the ballroom where Gass said Launchpad will host the same array of visual artists as they did on Central Street. They also plan to offer after-hours rehearsal space for local bands in the second floor office area.
Over the rest of the summer, the BSO and Launchpad intend to do some renovation work on the space, including bringing a few things up to code, and installing lighting rigs and a sound system in the ballroom. There is a working elevator to help take patrons up to the third floor, as well as a staircase leading directly from the street up to the ballroom.
“We’ll be doing some fundraising to buy things like chairs and music stands… If all goes as planned, we can start programming events this fall,” said Hinrichs. “It’s incredibly exciting.”
Bangor Ballet couldn’t be reached for comment.
