Windsor Hotel one of buildings lost in Bangor’s Great Fire of 1911

One of the downtown buildings lost to the fire was the Windsor Hotel, which the

1901 Bangor City Directory lists as being located at 100-120 Harlow St. Not

having the 1911 city directory at hand, I decided to see what the 1910 U.S.

Census might tell us about who lived at the Windsor. The area was enumerated in

1910 by Martin Goode as part of Bangor’s Ward 6.

The Windsor was run by New Hampshire native Frank W. Durgin, 56, hotel keeper,

and his wife, Maine-born Martha J. Durgin, 57, landlady. The Durgins had been

married 38 years — his first marriage, her second.

Daughter Lottie M. Durgin was 22. Daughter Ethel Young, 37, was married to Frank

O. Young, 37, hotel manager, and they had a daughter, Louise, 11. Also living

with the Durgins was Frank’s mother-in-law, Rose A. Kimball, 86, widowed. That’

s four generations in one census household.

Servants at the hotel in 1910 included Walter Crawford, 20; Charles Saulniel, 25,

Canadian French; Mable Allen, 27, Canadian English; Joseph Gaudette, 25, Canadian

French; Charles Bridges, 23, Canadian “Scotch”; Lucie Goldsmith, 25; Agusta

Moody, 52; and of course, many “roomers.”



The Cole Land Transportation Museum at 405 Perry Road always opens for the season

on May 1 — except this year. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great

Fire of 1911, the museum will open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, April 30, in Bangor.

Visitors will be interested in seeing the 1908 Amoskeag pumper, once owned by

Portland Fire Department and assigned to Engine Co. 3 on Brackett Street. It was

pulled by two horses until 1924 when a two-wheel 48-hp Christie tractor was

attached and the equipment was used to fight many Portland area fires.

The pumper is of special interest because it is very similar to the Amoskeag that

Portland Fire Department actually sent by train to help fight the Great Fire of

1911 in Bangor. The one at the museum was purchased by Cameron Bradley in 1946

and donated to the museum in 1989.

The Cole Museum’s special guest 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday will be Michael Daicy, a

member of Portland Fire Department for 31 years and its historian. He is very

knowledgeable about the equipment that Portland sent to help Bangor in 1911 and

will share a historic film showing scenes of horse-drawn firefighting apparatus

leaving and returning to the station in 1912.

Admission to the museum is $6 adults, $4 senior citizens, free to those age 18

and under.


BDN reporter Diana Bowley wrote a nice article about Bill Sawtell Day in the

April 12 edition of the paper. Sawtell for 29 years donated time and resources to

share local history, to arrange tours and to bring in speakers for Brownville

Elementary School.

As readers of Family Ties know, I appreciate the many books Sawtell has written

about small towns in the Piscataquis County area, towns that often are overlooked

because of their size. Sawtell’s most recent book, co-written with Ruth Cyr, is

“History and Stories of Milo Junction/Derby, Maine.”

Among his other books are “Schoodic Lake Revisited,” “Katahdin Iron Works and

Gulf Hagas,” “Glimpses of Greenville,” “Onawa Revisited,” “The Ron Marks

Story” and “The Wall.”

You may see some of these books in local libraries, or you can find out which

ones are still available for purchase by writing Bill Sawtell, P.O. Box 272,

Brownville, ME 04414.