Bangor Union Station was a passenger train station 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 ...

. Long the state's second-largest railroad station, it was served by the Maine Central Railroad and the

Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-generation diesel locomotives op ...

. In 1961, the railroads ended service to the station, which was then demolished to avoid an annual property tax of $10,788 on an assessed valuation of $372,000.Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Historical and Technical Society ''The BAR Newsletter'' December 1976 volume III, issue IV, pages 5-7 The station site is now occupied by the Penobscot Plaza Shopping Center.

Construction

The station was designed for the Bangor & Aroostook and the Maine Central by architect Henry B. Fletcher, who had designed stations for the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. Originally chartered in 1835, it became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the end of 1970, B ...

. Built under the supervision of Elbridge A. Johnston, the station was long and wide with a -by- wing and a separate -by- building for baggage, mail, and package express rooms. The station with a clock tower on the front was built of buff-colored brick with

brownstone Brownstone is a brown Triassic–Jurassic sandstone that was historically a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States and Canada to refer to a townhouse clad in this or any other aesthetically similar material. Type ...

trimmings and base. The clock tower was capped with a steeply peaked roof above an open

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al cupola. The principal entrance was defined by a porte-cochère opening into an vestibule to a -by- waiting room with an adjoining dining room, kitchen, and storeroom. A women's retiring room and toilet were to the right side of the vestibule, and the ticket office, agent's office, news stand, smoking room, and men's toilet were on the opposite side of the vestibule. Marble flooring was used in the entrance, waiting room, dining room, smoking room, and women's retiring room. The station included a train shed covering eight tracks.

Location

The station was built on the west bank of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's We ...

estuary, just upstream of the confluence with Kenduskeag Stream. The train shed extended upstream from the station, covering tracks between the station and the Penobscot River. Three tracks ran through and the remaining five were stubs extending downstream. The Maine Central Eastern Division main line extended upstream from the station to connect with the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

to the Maritimes at Vanceboro, Maine. Maine Central Eastern Division branch line trains to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

, Bar Harbor, or Bucksport required backing moves to cross the Penobscot River bridge approach upstream of the station. The stub tracks served trains crossing Kenduskeag Stream departing or arriving from the Bangor and Aroostook or from the Maine Central Portland Division to the

connection at Portland, Maine.

References

External links

Images of the station from Bangor Public Library
{{Maine Central Buildings and structures in Bangor, Maine Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Demolished railway stations in the United States Railway stations in Maine

Maine Central Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1907 Transportation buildings and structures in Penobscot County, Maine Former railway stations in Maine