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DEIGHAN ASSOCIATES, INC. - REGISTERED INVESTMENT ADVISOR
455 HARLOW STREET BANGOR, MAINE 04401 - TELEPHONE 207 990 1117
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Our Historic Building
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The Morse & Co. Office Building, 1895
Wilfred E. Mansur, architect
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The Morse & Co. Office Building is one of two survivors of the late 19th and early 20th
century 29-building mill complex which began at the head of Harlow Street and extended
along the Kenduskeag Stream. The other survivor is the frame building at 408 Harlow
Street, recently restored as an apartment building with commercial space on the first
floor. This important complex of mills included a grist mill, and buildings in which
building products (hemlock boards, frames, doors, slabs, edgings, moldings, architectural
ornament, furniture, stained glass, leaded glass), spices, processed carded wool, ash and
spruce oars, pork barrel staves, salt, salt boxes, and shingles were manufactured or
processed. Nearby mills, under different ownership, produced edging tools, coffins and
caskets, moldings, sheathings and plaster. Commissions of the Morse mills included the Maine
State Building at the 1893 World's Fair; the trim of the Fogg Memorial, Berwick; numerous
summer residences at Bar Harbor including Joseph Pulitzer's cottage; W.D. Sewell House, Bath;
the Cambridge (Mass.) Courthouse; a number of fine residences in Jamaica Plain, Brookline,
Roxbury, and Boston, Massachusetts, as well as many important houses, commercial blocks and
public buildings in Bangor and elsewhere in the state. The firm made large shipments of
architectural elements such as chimneypieces and doors and door frames to New England suppliers
and even shipped to San Francisco.
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The Morse & Co. Office Building was erected to plans by Bangor's most important architects of the
period (Wilfred E. Mansur, 1855-1921) to replace the mill's earlier, vernacular, office building,
in response to the growth in its business and reputation. It was conceived as a showroom of the
firm's capabilities, and its exterior displays a range of carefully coordinated trim details and
finishes, which were available to architects and builders who used its services. While the front
and north sides are masonry (granite, cobblestone and brick), the rear (east) and south sides are
stuccoed. The escutcheon-like sign boards are enframed by the most delicately carved detail. The
elaborate cornice detail of the building is neo-Federal, and one torus molding is carved in a
pierced geometric pattern like that of some of Maine's finest Federal houses. The small console
brackets of the roof soffit evoke some of the finest Bangor buildings of the 1870's designed by
George W. Orff (1835-1908), the Bangor architect who had a major influence on Mansur's development.
The angled three-sided bays of the ground floor are framed with delicate rope-carved frames. Their
leaded and stained glass transoms, typical of the period, are of the highest quality. The one
feature missing from this array of exterior decoration is the roof parapet, which effectively
concealed the building's central latern from the street. Amazingly, the architect created a
delicate and enchanting gem out of what could have been an overloaded assemblage of motifs.
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The trim of the building's interior was also a show place for the mill's capabilities.
The first floor, the actual office area, is finished in the most elegant, neo-baronial,
Queen Anne trim of the late 1890's. The chimneypieces on the first floor with their
enframed tiles and hearths, and the one in the upstairs conference room, are outstanding
examples of their type. Most of the interior trim is oak, typical for the period, although
much of the fine coffered paneling has been painted over. However, in the first floor
private office, the architect chose a finer wood, probably mahogany (but possibly something
rarer), and this remains unspoiled, recently restored by the hand-polishing of its new
owner. The door entablature in this room is the most elaborate of formal late 19th century
examples known to this writer in Bangor. The second floor of the building was an open
space or showroom, in which manufactured elements such as chimneypieces, pilasters, stair
trim, etc. were displayed. Three steel trusses and massive timber cross beams (three pairs
are concealed and one is exposed) support the roof and lantern, making it possible to keep
the space open.
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For twenty-five years the office of Leighton Business Systems, whose owner J. Roger
Atwater, was a building aficionado who personally worked to keep the building and its
trim intact, the building came into the hands of its new owners, Glen Porter and Jean
Deighan in February, 2003. Its present splendid appearance was achieved by Jean who was
searching for the perfect location and a larger building for her offices, with the
assistance of her architect, David Lloyd of Archetype, P.A., Architects. The project
involved a great deal of work on the infrastructure, systems and roofing of the building,
and the lantern was substantially rebuilt. The second floor lent itself to the provision
of five separate offices for associates, service spaces, and a conference room. Because
there were to be private offices, Jean felt windows were needed on the formerly blind,
rear, elevation, and she was successful in achieving this alteration with the permission
of the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission. (The building is on the National Register
of Historic Places and listed under the Bangor Historic Preservation Ordinance.) This
level is fully handicapped-accessible through the new rear door. On the first level, the
existing finishes were carefully restored and new arrangements made for services areas.
This complicated process has not only given Deighan Associates a wonderful new work
space, but it has enriched the city of Bangor by preserving for future generations one
of its rarest (truly sui generis) buildings, one which may not have a
counterpart anywhere else in the nation.
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Deborah Thompson, Ph.D.
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Text reproduced with permission from the Bangor Historical
Society/Bangor Museum and Center for History
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