The Adams-Pickering Block is a historic commercial building at Main and Middle Streets in

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Penobscot County. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's 3rd-largest settlement, behind Portland (68,408) and Lewiston (37,121). Modern Bangor ...

. Built in 1873, it is one of the major surviving works of local architect

George W. Orff George W. Orff (1835-1908), was an American architect of Bangor, Maine and Minnesota.Deborah Thompson, ''Bangor, Maine, 1769-1914: An Architectural History'' (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1988) Life and career George W. Orff was born March ...

in the city, and one of the few of the period to survive Bangor's

Great Fire of 1911 The Great Fire of 1911 took place in Bangor, Maine, United States, on April 30 and May 1, 1911. A small fire that started in a downtown shed went out of control and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings. History It started ...

Description and history

The Adams-Pickering Block is located in central Bangor, just south of West Market Square, at the northwest corner of Main and Middle Streets. It is a four-story,

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

-style building, which is distinctive for its granite facade, cast iron trim, and mansard roof. The Pickering Block, at the corner with Middle Street, is six bays wide, while the Adams Block, to its right, is seven. Windows on the second and third floors are set in segmented-arch openings, with decorative key-stoned hoods. When built in 1871, its ground floor had mostly cast iron elements, but the storefronts have been modernized, and only fragments of the original trim remain. The twin blocks were built in 1871 to a design by Bangor native architect

, and was built on the site of "The Main Street Fire" of 1872, which killed one and injured 8. It was one of a number of high-profile commissions Orff executed in downtown Bangor in those years, of which this is a rare survivor of both the

and urban renewal of the 1960s. The building was one of the largest local commissions for Orff, who subsequently migrated to Minnesota. George W. Pickering (1799-1876) was a prominent local merchant and President of the Kenduskeag Bank (incorporated 1847). His maternal grandfather Jacob Dennett was one of the original settlers of Bangor, part of a group which arrived in 1771. Pickering was also the 12th Mayor of Bangor (1853–54), and Vice President of the

Bangor Theological Seminary Bangor Theological Seminary was an ecumenical seminary, founded in 1814, in the Congregational tradition of the United Church of Christ. Located in Bangor, Maine, and Portland, Maine, it was the only accredited graduate school of religion in Nor ...

. ''Pickering Square'' in Downtown Bangor is named for him. According to historian James Vickery he "was called the best businessman in Bangor by his contemporaries"James Vickery, ed., ''The Journals of John Edwards Godfrey'', fnt. p. 279 It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on May 2, 1974.

References

External links

Adams-Pickering Block
Archiplanet, Accessed June 15, 2008 {{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Commercial buildings completed in 1873 Buildings and structures in Bangor, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Bangor, Maine Victorian architecture in Maine

Description and history

See also

References

External links