The Whitney Park Historic District is a residential
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
on the west side of
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 ...
. The district contains 42 residential properties built between 1850 and 1910, a major period of the city's growth, and is anchored on its south by Whitney Park, a small triangular park at Hammond and Cedar Streets. The district 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 ...
in 1988, and is protected by the city's local historic district ordinance.
Description and history
Whitney Park is located on the west side of Bangor, on the north side of Hammond Street (
Maine State Route 100
State Route 100 (SR 100) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maine, running from Portland to Bangor.
The south end of SR 100 is at the intersection of Forest Avenue and Cumberland Avenue in downtown Portland. Its north end is at t ...
) and south of Cedar Street. North of the park, roughly bounded by Cedar, West Broadway, Union Street, and Pond Street, stand a collection of well-preserved houses noted for their homogeneity of scale and setting. This area was platted and development begun in the 1850s, a time when Bangor was booming as one of the major lumber processing and shipment points in the United States. The houses in the district are architecturally diverse, representing a cross section of architectural styles popular between 1850 and 1910. The district is bounded by commercial development and 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 ...
to the south, later 20th-century residential development to the north, and an older residential area to the east.
The oldest building in the district is the Charles Jennings House at 15 Hayward Street. Built c. 1851-53, it is a relatively modest Greek Revival Cape that has been augmented by Colonial Revival alterations. There are a number of stylish Italianate houses, the most elaborate of which is probably that of William Arnold at 47 West Broadway; it is a rambling two-story structure with two towers. Lining West Broadway are also a series of Second Empire houses with mansard roofs. The West Broadway house lots were among the first to be laid out, and are larger (about ) than those found on other streets in the district. Later styles, including Queen Anne, Shingle, and the Colonial Revival, are well represented in the remainder of the district.
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See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Italianate architecture in Maine
Queen Anne architecture in Maine
Colonial Revival architecture in Maine
Buildings and structures in Bangor, Maine
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Bangor, Maine
Geography of Bangor, Maine