The former meeting hall of the Bangor Grange, located on outer Ohio Street, is for sale two years after the group merged with another local branch due to low membership.
Built in 1900, the former Bangor Grange hall offers more than 3,800 square feet of living space and sits on an acre near where Ohio Street and Finson Road meet.
The building mirrors other Grange halls around the state, as they were all built around the same time and have roughly the same layout, said Tracy McDonough, an associate broker for Keller Williams Realty and a listing agent for the property.
The property doesn’t have any bedrooms, but it does offer two bathrooms, a large kitchen built to feed a crowd and a grand function room on the lower level. The second floor holds another large meeting room with a wide curtained stage and tin ceilings.
While the building shows signs of wear and tear, including chipping paint on the exterior, it holds glimpses of its more-than-a-century-long history. Aside from serving as a place where Grange members could meet, it hosted community dinners, local theater shows, craft fairs and more.
Officially known as the Patrons of Husbandry, the nation’s first Grange was founded in 1867 following the Civil War and served as a place where men and women could share ideas and debate agricultural and household issues.
Branches were especially popular in rural areas, as it allowed local farmers to work together to benefit one another, according to Sherry Harriman, master/president of the Maine State Grange and a member of 54 years.
Maine’s first order of the group launched in 1873 and by the end of the following year, there were 64 Granges and about 2,000 members across the state.
Today, Maine has 22,186 members spread across 76 community Granges, 13 countywide Granges and one state Grange, Harriman said.
At one time, Maine had nearly 600 Granges, but membership has dwindled as technology advanced and lifestyles changed, according to Harriman. However, Maine still has more members per capita than the 35 other states with active Granges.
The Bangor Grange was founded on May 6, 1901, but it merged with the Old Town Riverside Grange, based in Brewer, two years ago due to low membership, Harriman said.
In an April 2023 Facebook post, the Bangor Grange called for financial support to maintain the aging meeting hall while it worked to revive membership, both of which suffered after the pandemic.
After the Bangor Grange merged with the Brewer-based Grange, an antiques market opened in the former hall in late 2024.
The property hit the real estate market on Jan. 20 with an asking price of $199,900.
The building, which is owned by the Maine State Grange based in Augusta, had an assessed value of $331,000 as of last year, according to city records.
The former meeting hall could be converted into a single-family home, or be renovated into a mixed-use building with commercial space on the lower level and housing on the second floor, McDonough said.
Bangor’s Grange hall also had a few more updates than other shuttered Grange buildings in the state. For example, the building has laminate tiles while others still have the original hardwood floors, McDonough said.