Bangor preservation panel approves roof safety upgrades for historic St. John's Catholic Church

[0:00] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): That we approve the meeting minutes from August 13th, 2026. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Second.] Yes. Can you guys mind pausing just a minute? Yes, pausing. All right, Matthew, you made the motion. I did. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: I seconded.] Okay. [0:25] Speaker C (unidentified): Katie voted yes. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: I voted yes.] Matt voted yes. Rebecca was about to vote. [Peter Keebler: Yes.] And I also voted yes. Okay, the next item of business is the adoption of findings and decision for 73 Main Street and for 139 Main Street. And on this one, you want to ask what's in the last month? No, I Vote on acceptance. You were, I was, and was that— [0:53] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: was okay. [0:54] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I'd like to move that we adopt the findings and decisions for 73 Main Street and 139 Main Street. [1:01] Speaker C (unidentified): Second. [1:03] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes. [1:05] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah. [1:07] Speaker C (unidentified): And I also vote yes. Passes. So new business, we have in front of us a certificate of appropriateness for 217 York Street, map lot 055-011. St. John's Catholic Church Historic Site, applicant is St. Paul the Apostle Parish. Owner is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland. I believe before we kick this one off— [1:31] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes, I have a potential conflict on this one. Okay, I've worked with the applicants in preparation of this application in a professional manner, and I have a direct funding interest. [1:47] Speaker C (unidentified): That sounds pretty clear-cut and dry to me. commission members, any comment? I would enter a motion that, the associate member of Bike Camp has a conflict of interest. [2:04] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I would like to make a motion that Associate Member Vikens has a conflict of interest and should be recused from this discussion. I second. [2:21] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes. [2:24] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes. That was a low yes. We'll ask you to politely step out of the room while we handle this business, and then we'll invite you back in. [2:31] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yep. Thank you, sir. [2:39] Speaker C (unidentified): So then before we do start rolling, so you will need 3 affirmative votes in order for this to pass. So you're able— you could either proceed now, we have 3 voting members present who can vote, or you could move to the next meeting. Oh no, we're good. Okay, fun. [2:57] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Fantastic. It's actually a simple majority now. [2:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Simple majority now. Okay, as I want to. Fantastic. See, if I had the new notes in front of me, I would know that. Okay, well then, let's, please, whoever of y'all wants to present. Should we introduce both ourselves? Yes, please introduce both yourselves as we don't have a camera in until we have permits. Okay, I am Tim Mackay. It's M-A-C-K-A-Y. I'm the facilities director here at St. Paul de Poço Parish. And I'm Ben— [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Go ahead.] I'm Ben Rehmeyer, under facilities guy, I guess. Yeah, well, technically you're a sexton. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Sexton, yes.] At St. John's Catholic Church. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Correct.] Which is fancy church name for maintenance guy. Yes. And so with you, I believe you guys have the application in front of you. So we're actually looking to do more than what we're asking here, but part of what we're— the biggest problem we're finding is we're losing some pretty single block roads. So, the biggest change that we see, from our understanding, is replacing the slate is sort of maintenance. But what we're asking, a couple of things we're asking is the first one is to install some fall protection devices at the peak of the roof. And that's really to make the work safe for the crew members. so if you look at, Our pictures, these permanent anchors, they kind of show you pretty much where— does Rebecca have a copy of this? [Peter Keebler: I do. Yeah.] So I'm looking at one called permanent anchors. So if you're looking across the roof, they're giving us an idea that they could cover with each anchor, they can cover what kind of area. So I believe it's 15 covers both The main roof and then the sub— [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Transoms.] Transom roofs. The next shows kind of— this isn't our roof, but it's another picture of a project similar to what we're looking at. And you can see one right here in the middle. Right here, you can see someone's tied off to this one. Rebecca, it's right here. Oh, she can't see. Yeah. Yes, the ones— yes, permanent roof anchor. Correct. Halfway down, you'll see— it's hard to see the actual anchor coming through the flashing, but you'll see the tie line going off to the right. There's a D-clip there that they're hooked in with. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] But we're looking to put those across the main. Actually, it's very similar to this because they've got 2 transit roofs as well. So it's a similar— the picture on the right is really what goes inside the roof, if you will, is how it gets mounted. That really you're never going to see, but what you're going to see is this piece, and I think it's about 4— well, that's 2, that says 2 and 11/16 center of the hole to the top of the roof, but it's going to be 3 or 4 inches sticking up when it's done. That's really not going to be all that visible from the— [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Correct.] I imagine it really shouldn't be. It really shouldn't be. It's going to be bronze. So, as it ages, it should match in. One of the other things that is replacing the copper flashing. The ridge cap in particular. Flashing that's across the top here. We do have a picture of that. The next one that says ridge cap. Hopefully I've got it in the same order that you guys. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yep.] You can see that's one place we're losing some shingles along the ridge. But we were told it was installed incorrectly and that they nailed through the base of it instead of doing hidden fasteners. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Oh.] So that's one thing where, while we're up there, we're going to look to replace that, which would be with copper. The second item I believe that would be for review is the snow rails. One of the things that these gentlemen pointed out was we have a copper roof over the boiler in there. Actually, it's over our sacristy, but boiler's under that. A lot of snow comes off this slate, comes off quickly when it comes off. So there's a real potential to damage this cotton roof. So they've proposed some snow rails. I added on to that. There's another picture. I really— I just wrote snow rail. It's on the other side of the church. That's a sidewalk between the church and the rectory. You can't really see the rectory, but it's just coming off the picture. numerous— one, a meek one. I know what's happened to Ben. What's happened to a couple of our priests? They come out that door just as the snow starts to come. Luckily, none of us have either— We've gotten just by it, so we're right in front of it, but no one's really gotten hit by it, which some storms it could really hurt us. So I'm asking to see if we can at least go buttress to buttress, which is about 18 feet. That one we will— this one really you're not going to see. This is— It's hard to see that spot. Because there's an apartment complex behind us. This one here we will see. [8:20] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Which one? Can you tell me which one you would see and which one— sorry. [8:23] Speaker C (unidentified): I wrote down here, you're looking at a drone view on the top of the whole ridge of the church. Yeah,. See where I kind of wrote? [8:33] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Which one would you not see? The, other one? [8:37] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, the other one. [Peter Keebler: Yeah, this one.] Yeah, correct. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yep.] Okay. If we get to a picture, Rebecca, I'll, I'll, you'll be able to, as we flip through, you'll, I'll be able to tell you roughly where that is. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] I think so. So behind that is a picture of, it's called, it's made by Berger, B-E-R-G-E-R. And it is made out of bronze. It tucks up underneath the slate. You put it in like a slate shingle. It tucks up underneath, and then there's a couple of bronze bars. So it's visible, but I think it's very decorative. I do like the looks of it. Is the color going to be similar? The color will age to a bronze. Okay. Yeah. Yeah,, I think it would take a few years to do that, but that's, yeah, I see that as, you know, almost really not that noticeable. [Peter Keebler: Yeah.] So here's a picture of the— there's another picture of a snow rail with the 3 rails on it. And more, this is, this is really a request from us more for safety for our employees, you know, of anything. We've been kind of Mowing about it the last couple years. What are we going to do? And then these guys came up with this, and I was like, yeah, this is really what we need to put up there. And then the last one is the crosses. And again, we have there's a picture of one of them, the only one left. We've had two of them fall down. One came down, I believe, two years ago. The other one was probably. I started working at the church in 2020, and Ben was twenty. 2021, right? 22. so this first cross came down before we were working. so they're just rotting. We believe they were part of the 1988 renovation when they did that. They did a lot of work at the church in 1988. And actually, they installed the slate roof in the '80s. And they redid the slate. so what, we're proposing is to make this out of a, make it out of mahogany so it lasts a little bit longer and then paint it. We do have the cross that came down is missing a few pieces, but we have enough to put it back together really the same size. To make it the exact same. Yeah, we're not exactly sure how— there's got to be a pocket here. We don't know how deep it is until we go up there and look, but we know it's, it's a 4x4 constructed cross. We can measure that. so there's got to be some kind of a pocket there we can deal with, but, we won't know until we get there. Yep. So we're going to paint it the same color, less the lichen that's growing on it now, and go from there. and we'd put back all 3. So yeah,, our, intent is to replace this one. If you go to the southwest view, you can see this one missing. So we'd replace all 3. We're going to do it because this one's come I mean, we're lucky. The last one that came down was right near our walkway where we walk into the church. Oh, so it came down. It actually came down during the day too. Somebody came out and said, hey, the cross is down. Yeah, I went outside and I looked to my left and there's the cross on the ground. I was like— But, you know, we have people walk across this walkway and the cross is— this is it on this side. The cross is right above it. So no, we do well. [12:01] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): So far the church has had a lot of good luck. [12:03] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes,, yes. God's watching them. So I don't know if we have that picture. No, we don't. Of where that other snow rail would go. You can sort of see it on the southwest trends. Yeah. So if you're looking at the southwest photo, there's that roof ridge to the left. Page 31. [Peter Keebler: In ours.] Rebecca, page 31. [12:28] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah, thank you. Right below the crosses. Yep, southwest. [12:34] Speaker C (unidentified): There you go. So if you look on the lower left of the picture, you'll see the buttresses, a set of 3. It would be between, in that picture, the 2nd and 3rd. Yeah, because if you look close enough, Rebecca, down at the bottom, you'll see a black flat roof. You can just barely see it in this picture. And the issue with that flat roof is the door doesn't protrude far enough out to actually protect you from the snow load coming off the roof. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Right.] It does the rain but not the snow. [13:04] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Exactly. So what's that facing? [13:07] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Is that facing the road? [13:08] Speaker C (unidentified): That faces southwest. So that faces the rectory. [Peter Keebler: The rectory.] Yeah, the rectory is sitting on that block. I don't think I gave you a personal view. [13:15] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): It's not a view that somebody would be seeing from the road. [13:18] Speaker C (unidentified): No. well, you'd see it a little bit from the road. Yeah,, yeah. Because coming up York Street, you know, if you're over here on Boyd Street walking this way, you would see this section of the roof. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] Yeah, this section is that other— Where the chimney is, you can barely see to get any photos whatsoever. Which is really nice to have these drone pictures because we knew, we knew we had shingles missing because we're finding them on the ground. We just didn't know. You can see there's some damage there. I think there's a couple missing here. So having these pictures have really been able to tell us, okay, this is where we go. Because you can't, you know, with binoculars I can see most of this, but I can't see this area. Is that a possibility? [14:04] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Tim, I think when you and Ben met with us for the pre-app, you said there might be 30 or 40 shingles total across the whole roof. [14:12] Speaker C (unidentified): I would say it's, yeah, more towards the 40, Michael. You know, when you even look in these pictures, you can find them. You know, you can see a couple right there. Especially on the other side, we've got some missing. [14:22] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: And they're sprinkled all over. [14:23] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah. Yeah, this valley on the other side has some right in here. You can see a couple broken. Yeah, the eaves of the church definitely are a fair bit broken. So, you know, it's something we don't see a leak right now, but we want to be a little proactive and get there before we miss— lose too many more. You know, every shingle, the one behind us, the only thing keeping us from leak. At least we don't, we don't see any leaks right now. And as of right now, Matthew and— we had the preliminary contract to have them try and investigate what type of slate this is, because it wasn't Monson, surprisingly. So we're looking at different options for color matching. Okay. There's one out of Vermont that's a really close one. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah.] Does anybody have any questions for us? Well, first we'll go with Mike's report. Okay. [15:26] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah. And Tim and Ben, I've got a couple of questions you can answer as we get to those. But I wanted to start with just a summary of the work then is for the installation of 15 roof anchors. 3 snow rails at 2 locations, and 3 crosses at the gable peaks. A little bit of the history of St. John's. St. John's Catholic Church was designed by the renowned New York architect Patrick Keely in the Gothic Revival style. It was dedicated in 1856. Keely came to America from Ireland in 1841, designed many Catholic churches in Maine and New York. Including the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland in 1868. Very important architect. So it's great to see that you are maintaining this building and have been for years. Questions that I had that came up in the pre-app when we met with you earlier was, first of all, I think the return of the wooden crosses, if you're replicating the originals, sounds like you are. to the church gables may be considered ordinary maintenance. That's a decision for the commission to decide. But it appears that they're putting back what was there originally. So that would— [16:49] Speaker C (unidentified): That's our intent, size. And I mean, the material is going to change. Yeah, well, because the mahogany will last longer. Yeah. I mean, it has been 38 years, I think, roughly, since it went up there. But If we can get 50 years out of it, that's even better, because that's a tough place to get to. [17:08] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Exactly. So I would say the commission may want to review that, and if it's maintenance, then that's just ordinary maintenance. Next point was the new bronze anchors are at a regular spacing and will project about 4 inches— I think we all agree— above the rolled copper roof cap. The regular spacing you see on the layout from the applicant They're spaced out equally, so it doesn't have a dissimilar look. So the little 4 inches that might rise above that copper-rolled roof cap will be slightly visible, but it will at least be— everything about the church is laid out to modules. You can see these buttresses, everything is a modular layout. So I think across the ridge, it'll look like it's always been there. My question was, how is the joint between the anchors and the ridge cap sealed? So there's a perimeter, these cut up through that copper cap. And I don't know, Tim, if you and Ben had talked to Matt or anybody about how they seal those, but how would— [18:16] Speaker C (unidentified): So a lot depends on what, when we get there, how it best suits. They talked about soldering it in place if it's an option. If not, putting a sealant Around it. Perhaps a mixture of both is going to be necessary. I'm still questioning whether there can be a cap of some sort put onto these. [18:35] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Oh, okay. so the point is, if, rainwater gets through that perimeter, it's going to affect the framing of the church. We certainly don't want that. So it sounds like you're at least going to seal it or solder it. You can solder bronze to copper. And how are the stone guards anchored? I think you've answered that. Yeah, here's the half of that goes underneath the slate up above it. [19:01] Speaker C (unidentified): It does, right? Okay. Essentially, it's a slate base. It's like a slate shingle with the bronze on the end. I think the size is— yeah, they do give you— oh yeah, the base plate material is on the spec sheet. [19:15] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: And did they say, Tim, what the material is? [19:18] Speaker C (unidentified): It's made out of bronze. Bronze. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Yeah,, they're probably pretty pricey. [19:24] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: So it looks like there's little holes. If I look closely at the detail, there's holes that are— Yeah, there's holes where you would put it in like a shingle. Okay. Underneath, that would be covered with the slate shingle. Exactly. Yes. [19:34] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay. Yeah, we'll have to remove shingles, make sure it's an anchorable spot, and if we need to reinforce underside to make that be the case. [19:47] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: And that's all I have. [19:48] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay, you guys, questions for the applicants from the commission? [19:57] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Rebecca, maybe? [19:59] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): My very silly question is just because I'm struggling to orient myself on the route. [20:06] Speaker C (unidentified): Actually, this is the best picture. This is the one we probably should have given you, but You see this, Rebecca? I'm looking at the notes from Mike, the 2 pages. [20:19] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Oh, the sunny one. [20:21] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Exactly. [20:23] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah,. Okay, so if you look at that one, you can count the buttresses: 1, 2, 3. Between 3 and 4 is where we're looking. So you can see the small roof at the bottom. That's the entrance door into the basement of the church. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] So we're looking to put it above that, and we thought about putting it from buttress to buttress because it sort of looked right. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Right.] And I don't know how high up it goes. It probably goes like 2 or 3 feet up, but I don't know that for sure. But that's basically where we'd be putting it. [20:55] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): And it's 18 feet from buttress to buttress. [20:57] Speaker C (unidentified): It's about 18 feet, I think, from buttress to buttress. [21:00] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: It's terrific. [21:02] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): It's huge. [21:02] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, it's really big. If you ever want to come up and get a tour, you know. Yeah, it's a big church. it's not as big as the one they built in Portland, though. It's even bigger. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: All right.] So the Bangor, it was a big church. [21:14] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Okay, so that's the rectory side? [21:18] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes. Yeah,, the rectory is actually— you can just see the rectory right here. [21:22] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Okay, and where the chimney is, this picture, that is the same one that you had that picture up here with the snow rail? [21:29] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes, that's actually on the back side. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] Okay. Yeah, that's it. [21:35] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): That's the end. [21:37] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Pictures. [21:39] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't know how far we're there. [Peter Keebler: This picture?] Yes. [21:42] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): This is that same spot. This is where that snow ramp goes. [21:44] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah,. [21:44] Speaker C (unidentified): I'm sorry. It's here and then it's floating at it. [Peter Keebler: Okay.] Perfect. Yes. That's what I was told. So that's not on the website. [21:51] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Easily. [21:52] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah,. [21:53] Speaker C (unidentified): You can't really see that at all. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah.] Technically, we could put that up and no one's even gonna notice it. [21:58] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I think Rebecca has a question. I'm sorry, I think— sorry, Katie, I think that you'll see, if I'm, if I'm orienting myself correctly with the church, because I do know this church, I think that you would see it a little bit from York Street. Is that correct? [Speaker C (unidentified): Correct.] Yes. [22:15] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah,, the one on the right side of the church, you will. [22:18] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Right, okay. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yep,.] I'm pretty impressed that with a bad install, that roof still lasted 40 years. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. [22:34] Speaker C (unidentified): We've definitely lost some shingles from under there. Well, we have. And those come down in a hurry. [Peter Keebler: Yes.] Those are scary. [22:41] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): All right, so what would this look like, Mike, if we did decide that all of this except for the snow rail is just ordinary maintenance? [22:55] Speaker C (unidentified): The only one that's— well, maintenance would be the crosses or cross replacement, I think. [23:00] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah, that's what I would say. I think the crosses were there. They're replacing them verbatim. Yeah, so that's maintenance as far as I'm concerned. But the commission needs to review that item. I think I referred to it. When you look at your ordinance, it's 148.10. So if you agree that's maintenance, or however you want to act on it, I just— [23:21] Speaker C (unidentified): I don't see Is that a motion to vote on, or can I make an executive decision? [23:26] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I think you would need to motion on that. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Okay.] I'd like to make a motion that the replacement of the crosses is ordinary maintenance and does not need to be considered by the commission. What do you think, Rebecca? I second. Yes. [23:50] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes. I also vote yes. Okay, so we will consider that maintenance. Okay, so that leaves us— So, not quite a good question. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Oh, sorry.] No, it's fine. You're pretty confident, Mike, that this isn't going to be really all that— the actual anchor isn't going to be all that visible from street level? [Matthew R. Weitkamp: About 4 inches.] Yeah, I'm just trying to think, 4 inches. From a long ways away, it's probably about 100 feet. [24:20] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah, you're looking at it. [Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah.] And the good news is that it's on a very regular space, so it actually feels like it's been thought out. [24:27] Speaker C (unidentified): Well, and like they said, patinas gotta match everything. And the hope with this being a permanent installation is that we can then maintain the rest of it for years to come, and you don't have to do this again. Yeah, no, that's— I'm down with that. Very clever. Anything for worker safety. Well, it gets difficult for a worker to get up there. I mean, we don't have it in the picture, but the— on the opposite side of this building is a roof hatch, and I think it's in one of the drone pictures. So this is how they went in the old days. They came out the hatch. It's on the opposite side of here, and I don't know what they did. They swung around with a piece of rope. [25:07] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Is that tiny— [25:08] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, that tiny little door. Yeah, I've had my head up through there. You can come out that. [25:14] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Rebecca, that's page 33, the tiny box on the top of the roof. [25:18] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, that's a roof vent. [25:19] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): No, I was wondering, I was wondering what that was. [25:21] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah,, you can get out that. [Peter Keebler: No, thank you.] I don't think OSHA likes the idea of us getting out there. [25:31] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): That is so scary. [25:34] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah, okay. [25:38] Speaker C (unidentified): I, don't have any questions. I think this all makes sense to me. Do you have any questions? [25:44] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): My only other question is, you said that one of the ways that you might deal with making sure that the anchors don't allow in water was to maybe put caps over them. What would those look like? [25:57] Speaker C (unidentified): They talked about creating a sleeve. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Flashing cap.] Yeah, a flashing cap essentially. However, in today's world, 3D printing is pretty phenomenal. So if we— yeah, well, no, you can 3D come up with a design and then send it out to a metal shop and they'll fabricate it. You can also, put ice and water shield on the inside underneath this cap. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Exactly.] So you don't— you can, you can wrap it in ice and water shield so it comes around your anchor on the inside underneath your flashing. Take that to about an inch from your flashing so it goes over the shingle, and then you're— because that's actually one of the concerns of folks in the church. You know, we're going to make sure we've got 15 holes in our roof now. We'll make sure it doesn't. And if anything, we'll do overkill. Yes. Okay. Rebecca, do you have anything else? [Peter Keebler: Nope.] Okay, so that closes the questions for the applicants and go into commission discussion. [27:06] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I think they've answered all of my questions. I don't think that caps would increase the profile more, and I'm just imagining Trying to see a bird on that roof. [Speaker C (unidentified): It's pretty big.] Yeah,, pretty big. It's far up there. [27:30] Speaker C (unidentified): I think you'd be more likely to notice snow rails than the caps. [27:34] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): But yeah, but that's— that makes a lot of sense to me for safety. Yeah, can't just keep counting on luck. [27:43] Speaker C (unidentified): Worst place is the rooftop. Can I actually pose one question to you with the crosses? [Peter Keebler: Sure.] If we were to put a bird deterrent on top of those, is that an issue? Because I do see birds land on them, i.e., eagles and such, which is pretty cool. Yeah, I have a great photo of it. [28:06] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): But is there an issue with having them there? [28:08] Speaker C (unidentified): I'm just thinking eagles are okay, just not pigeons. But we really haven't had a lot of pigeons on that side of town. I don't know why. We don't see the eagles came back. We have bats and stuff, but we don't really see a lot of visits over there. [28:23] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: The Nixalite, like you probably have here on City Hall, is like a spiky thing. Yes, it goes on. It probably looks like porcupine quills. They're probably 3 inches long to keep any bird uncomfortably sitting. [28:36] Speaker C (unidentified): Something we do actually have to have them in the bell tower. [28:39] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Exactly. I would just say is If they're not visible, because it could be distracting. [28:44] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, I was trying to picture one of those crosses on there covered in spikes, which— [28:51] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: yeah, crosses covered in spikes. [28:53] Speaker C (unidentified): But I don't think that's the vibe that the church is going for, or whatever. So I don't know if the monsignor is gonna like that either. [29:02] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: No, I mean, I know it's a functional thing, but I think if it's not— [29:08] Speaker C (unidentified): I think like Mark said, if it's not visible, it's probably Yeah. So we can see what it looks like when it's up there. Yeah. But no, we haven't had pigeons for a while that I've seen. Well, we have the crows and seagulls and eagles. Yeah. I think I'd be more worried about ospreys trying to nest up there. Oh, geez. Yeah, that'd be fun. [29:32] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): What is the original? Do you know? It's a type of wood, but do you know what kind of wood? [29:38] Speaker C (unidentified): It looks like it might be just a spruce or a hemlock. Spruce or hemlock. I was gonna say, it doesn't even look like it was pressure treated. [29:45] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): No. No, it doesn't. [29:47] Speaker C (unidentified): No, the, piece that we have on the ground, it looks kind of like a hemlock type of wood. [29:55] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah. mahogany will last it. [29:58] Speaker C (unidentified): That's what we're thinking. And you can see that it rotted right out at the base. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah.] Yes. It rotted just, as it was going through the roof. It's really dry rotted there, and that's— the wind just took it down one day. [30:09] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah, the only thing I would worry about with the spikes is just visually what it might look like. Yeah, and we probably won't do it. I was just curious of the question. Okay, any other comments, Rebecca or Katie? I'm good. [30:27] Speaker C (unidentified): All right, I think I'm good, so I will close the commission discussion. Do we have any members of the public on that Would like to ask questions? [30:34] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Can I stop sharing? [30:37] Speaker C (unidentified): No? Okay, I'm going to close the public comment. There's nobody in the hallway, and, then I think I would entertain the motions that I can come through and find our voting thing. Okay, and I'm assuming, Anya, it's like always green applies, yellow we believe not applicable motion. So I think I would entertain a motion that procedural background is met. [31:16] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): I would like to make a motion that the procedural background is met, for the requirements of This project. I second. Yes. [31:32] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes. [31:33] Speaker C (unidentified): I also vote yes. Okay, so I guess Katie, you're gonna make all the motions. So what we'll do is we'll make a motion for part 1, and then when we get to part 2, you can make the motion that the specific parts in part 2 Part 3 are not applicable to this application. Okay, and then we'll make a motion on those statements. [31:58] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Excellent. I'd like to make the motion that the Commission finds that based on Exhibits 1 through 2, the application satisfies Historic Preservation Code 148-9A, requiring that any alteration of the historic structure will preserve or enhance its historical and architectural character. I second. Yes. Yes. So, yes, I'd like to move that the Commission considers Part 2, Section 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Part 3, 1, 2, and 3 as not necessary for the determination of the This particular project. I second. Yes. Yes. Yes. Excellent. I'd like to move that part two, part two. The commission finds that based on exhibits one through two, the application satisfies historic preservation code 148-9B2B, requiring that rehabilitation work does not destroy the distinguishing qualities nor care. Character of the structure and its environment. I second. And yes,, yes. I'd like to move that only done part two, right? Part two, part number three. The commission finds that based on exhibits one through two, the application satisfies the Historic Preservation Code 148-9B2C. Requiring that while repair is preferable to replacement, in the event that replacement of deteriorated architectural features is necessary, the feature being replaced in color, design, texture, and other visual qualities, and where economically feasible, materials. I second. Sorry. I vote yes. Yes. [34:03] Speaker C (unidentified): I also vote yes. [34:04] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Part 2, number 4. The Commission finds that based on Exhibits 1 through 2, the application satisfies Historic Preservation Code 148-9B2D, requiring that distinctive stylistic features or examples of skilled craftsmanship which characterize historic structures not damaged or destroyed wherever possible. [Speaker C (unidentified): I second.] Yes. [34:30] Speaker C (unidentified): Yes. [34:32] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes. [34:33] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Part 2, number 9. The Commission finds that based on Exhibits 1 through 2, the application satisfies Historic Preservation Code 148-9B, requiring that wherever possible, all alterations to structures shall be done in such a manner that if they were to be removed in the future, the essential form and integrity of the original structure would be unimpaired. I second. [34:58] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yes. [Speaker C (unidentified): Yes.] Yes. [35:03] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): And I can read the decision, okay? [Speaker C (unidentified): Yes.] And therefore, I move that the Commission finds that based on the findings of Parts 1 through 2 of Section 4 in this document, the project meets the requirements of a certificate of appropriateness and thereby— therefore grants a certificate of appropriateness for the proposed project. My second. Yes. Yes. [35:30] Speaker C (unidentified): And I vote yes. So the project passes 3-0. Thank you very much for coming in front of the— thank you. [35:43] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Good job. Hello, application. Thank you. [35:45] Speaker C (unidentified): It was a good experience. Anybody wants to let Matt Thank you very much. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Welcome back.] So it says we have to start within a year though, right? [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah.] Yeah, I'm not— depending on what I was— yeah, I've got other rules within there. [36:17] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Church will have to do. [36:19] Speaker C (unidentified): Okay, this is our first step. Okay, thank you very much. Yeah,, yeah, don't want to get in line. We saw we had some next door, but it didn't match. We still have some in the rectory that was inside. They added on— I don't know when they added it on— roof on a roof on a roof, maybe about 40 years ago, but they put a gable onto it and they left the slate there. They're up in the attic. This slate right here, different sizing. It doesn't match. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah, of course.] Might match somebody in Bangor, I'm sure, because it would have— the house was originally 1880s. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yeah, you should—] like 30 years after the church. [36:56] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): List that on Marketplace or something. [36:58] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah, thank you very much. [36:59] Speaker C (unidentified): Great. [36:59] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Thank you. [37:00] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: All right, thank you. [37:01] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): As a person with a slate roof, that's awful tempting. [37:09] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: There should be like a place where slate, if it's coming off a roof anywhere in Maine, can kind of be saved, salvaged. [Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah.] Goes back to Vermont. [37:23] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah. [37:23] Speaker C (unidentified): There's a, like a— Yeah. [37:27] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Isn't there a place in Auburn that takes historic building materials? There's architecture. There's one in Connecticut. [37:34] Speaker C (unidentified): It's huge. The place in Maine just closed for some reason. Really? Not architectural salvage place. Oh yeah, that's the one in Portland. [37:40] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: There's one in like— [37:41] Speaker C (unidentified): I think the one was the one in Portland. [37:45] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: The one in Portland. I mean, if you need some Italianate brackets or something for your kitchen, you go in there and find them. But every kitchen needs— every kitchen All right, guys, ready to do this? Yes. [Peter Keebler: Yay!] I wish Peter was here. Can you email the presentation? [Speaker C (unidentified): What's that?] Can you email the presentation out? Yeah, anyone, any of— and you commissioners can get a copy of it, I would suspect, through Matthew. so how do we do the There's a mouse, something. [38:27] Speaker C (unidentified): Do you want the mouse? [38:29] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Maybe. [38:31] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: I don't know, but— Right. So for those of you that remember, we did character-defining features of Bangor's residences, the houses, and we based it pretty strongly on the architectural styles, which we're gonna do here as well. [Speaker C (unidentified): well.] And my point about that is, if there's anything that's affecting what are considered the character-defining features of each one of these styles, there's something that affects that, 's serious. That's a big change. Okay. So start with this one. Back when Epic Sports used to be downtown, you all remember that. They had a nice presence there. That building is still there. It's a very tough building. was the W.T. Grant's downtown department store, originally. I had worked on this building upstairs when the University of Maine moved in. We basically made, space for them, open office space on the upper floors of this building. But, so downtown on major arterials, we have Mercantile business, hotels, churches, civic buildings, theaters. All of those are considered commercial. Anything that's not residential. So our Bangor House, one of the most important commercial buildings in Bangor, once graced the COVID of the National Park Service Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Disturbed Properties. That was wonderful to see that kind of presence nationally. People would say, oh, what a lovely building, and it has been restored largely to what it was originally. The building was, just so you're aware, it was designed by Boston architect Isaiah Rogers around 1830. It's the date of this one, 1833, and Some other pieces of this building, like the portico that you see right here, were attributed more to Charles Bryant. Charles Bryant being the architect that we talked about in the residential section about his signature, which was columns with wreaths above it. So when you see that, you're probably looking at something that's involved Charles Bryant. This is an important example of a— what's considered a grand hotel. And it pretty much followed Isaiah Rogers' design pattern that he did a couple years prior to this, you know, for a hotel called the Tremont in Boston. Very similar. I gotta point out something though, that architecturally is just amazing. What he did here was the joint of these 2 faces are not 90 degrees together. The streets are splayed. So in order to cover that up, if you will, in order to make that controllable visually, because as they come together just to one sharp point, you would have realized pretty quickly that they were not 90 degrees. So they're off by about 10 degrees. And so what he did very cleverly was develop this bay that you see, this arched bay on the outside corner, and did the same thing in Boston. on the Tremont. So just the sort of things that you see in buildings like this. This building was restored in the early '80s, I think. They actually put back the chimneys that you see up there. Those were gone from the building. They, the one thing they did not return was you do not have these windows up here returned into the upper attic space. But window patterns were 6 over 6. There's a lot of distinguishing characteristics of this building. The base being a stone base that elevates the brick portion up above it. Very important details. I don't know if you're all aware, but right across the street here in the parking lot for the, for the Zilman Art Museum was downtown Sears and Roebuck. And Sears and Roebuck did a very unusual design here in downtown. This photograph is probably from the '40s, I guess, back when it was two-way traffic. So anybody trying to pull onto this street knows about some of the issues with that. You can see it was two-way traffic. The rest of these buildings that are up beyond these, from this point on, are pretty much intact. And so as commercial buildings, you see this kind of amalgam of buildings that feature certain things similar to one another. Oftentimes after the Great Fire, most of the buildings that went back in downtown were brick and masonry because they didn't want to return to frame buildings that burned up so easily. So that's what we have today. So, and in the very distance over here, you can see building that is 9 Central, I think, or 9 State, 6 State Street, 6 State Street, the one that Carol Epstein owns. So Sears and Roebuck, when this building came away and got torn out of here, they developed that big front courtyard, that parking lot that you see there today. So I'll read this in your ordinance, basically says rehabilitation work shall not destroy the distinguishing qualities and/or character of the structure and its environment. What that could mean for a building like this, which is called the Curve Block, an important Wilfrid Manser design, is what they've done is they carried and maintained the important relationships of the windows within the openings. So what you're seeing here is, this is really powerful contribution elements to the architecture of the building. the arch tops. so if they were to come back in and said, you know, we've got an application, we really wanted to use some of these other windows, they're just square, and we're just going to fill in the top of that, the commission may take issue with that because this is really clearly a distinguishing element. It shows a higher level of quality put into the building. Or we might want to take these cornice brackets off because there's so much work for us to maintain I'll never forget when this application did come in years ago. They said, we're going to do something on the rooftop and it won't be visible from anywhere. So I guess I fooled them with this photograph. But this is a really important building. The commercial buildings in the downtown, especially the ones done by Manser, have all kinds of brick patterning. So if you look really closely, you're going to see all— you don't have to go too far to find a change in what he did with brick. What he did with brick was just incredible, pushing it in, pushing it out, and making these wonderful details. Character-defining features: a prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic of a historic property that contributes significantly to its physical character. Structures, objects, vegetation, spatial relationships, views, furnishings, decorative details, and materials may be such features. This was actually a demolition project right here. It's an important Wilford Manser building. [Speaker C (unidentified): Thank you.] This was called the Superintendent's House. Back when the waterworks was in operation, superintendent's house and office were in this building. The commission denied— twice denied— the demolition of this building. Citing that it was an important historic building as a, as a shingle-style building. And, they— the applicant went to the Board of Appeals and got approval to tear it down. So that building is no longer there. But what you see here in terms of characteristics of a building like this, you see all sorts of these arch-top windows. It's really reflecting a little bit of a what's called Romanesque Roman curved top window. So, even though it's a heavy industrial building— and this is the gatehouse that's out here, still sitting there today. This was remnants of the dam that used to be there but is no longer. So that was last owned, by Shaw— is still currently owned by Shaw House. and if you don't know the story of it, This was actually a generator wing right here. Water would rush in underneath this, and it would power turbines, and the turbines generated electricity that was used originally in the trolley car system in Bangalore. So these were elevated. There was a floodplain elevation issue where they had to actually elevate these. So the occupancies within this part of the building Were for units for apartments, if you will, that were generated along this way. There's a giant pump that existed right about here inside the building. It's called the Dean Pump. It was one of the first in the nation, really powerful water pump. That's still there. That was retained inside the building. [Speaker C (unidentified): So.] So what we have, what you have available for yourself to do research on any of the applicants that are coming in, again, is the CARMA forms. We've done, I think, about 500 structures so far all over the city. You can go to MHPC. From MHPC, you go to Quick Links, CARMA forms, and you'll bring up this information, which tells a great deal about each individual building, especially commercial buildings. So I've kind of highlighted some of the things that we would note on a building like the Telephone Exchange Building. It's Art Deco and modern in its architecture. The tower building done with brick has pressed metal. There's a stone entrance and stone base to the building, and then brick up above it. The date when it was built, 1931. All sorts of good information. [49:13] Speaker C (unidentified): There. [49:14] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Just wanted to jump in real quick. Matt has been working with our GIS guy, John Miller, to actually put these on our parcel viewer. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Fabulous.] So now when you click on a parcel— [49:24] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Wow, that's great. It came up for the Homestead Hill House I was looking at today. [Peter Keebler: Great.] Really? [Peter Keebler: Yeah.] Good job. I didn't know. It's super duper. Yeah. Good information for, like, especially for people that maybe buy historic properties and don't realize it. Right. And might just learn something. [49:44] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah. And even the houses that aren't designated yet that we have done surveys for, that would be cool. [49:50] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah. Very valuable. Thank you. That's great work. [Peter Keebler: Yeah.] Well, in downtown Bangor, there was a department store, Freezes, which people that remember the store really loved it. It's a good store. But I think an important thing that I wanted to point out here was building got reused for elderly housing on the upper floors, and then of course the Discovery Museum and other things commercial on the ground floor. That's actually a pretty static model in the downtown— commercial storefront and commercial on the ground floor, residential above. That works pretty well. But I wanted to point out up here the canopy, the parapet was very unique. This is stamped metal and a really important character-defining feature of that building. Had that been lost, something big would have been lost from the architecture of the building. It was retained. One thing to notice too is the architects, when they did this building over, I think it was Lewis and Maum out of Bucksport, they actually added another cornice right here, which is an interesting idea because it increases the base of the building. And actually makes— and they change color from the base to the upper part. So it looks more like this on the left here now. But I thought it was wonderful that they were able to retain that hair of it. So I can send you all, or I'll send it through Matthew and Anya, this illustration, which is one that I did years ago, but it basically points out all of the really important parts. So when you speak about what's going on the side of a downtown building, this will give you a pretty good description of what those pieces are and what makes up the building's elements. So to me, one of the most important parts happens below the sign band. From this point on down to the ground floor is where change really can happen in the downtown. We've had many applications that come in that want to modify their storefronts. A few maybe even return it back to what the storefronts look like more originally, which brings it back in line visually with what was there. To point out a couple of key parts of what makes up the storefront, this whole thing is considered the storefront, from this cornice above the sign band all the way down to the ground. This is the storefront of the building. And it's often treated quite differently than anything above the building. This happens to be another Wilfred Mansur building. And what he did here was just so very amazing. His— I would love to bring this guy up. He changes the angle here, which is really quite interesting. He breaks the building on this line right here. And had he come out square, I don't think it would have had the same result. But very clever. He just about matches what happens on this side. The guy was in love with arches, as you can see. Whenever he could make an arch out of something, he would do it. And in this case, it's, it's a very substantial series of arches here, and then smaller arches above it, and then in the cornice, even arches here that make up the brackets of the arch. So he will sometimes break brick. If you look closely when you go to this— by this building again, you'll see that the perimeters right here are what we call articulated masonry, where he's basically cracked the brick and exposed the broken surface of it to give a shadow. So very clever. What he was doing with brick was just amazing. So sometimes we'll have applicants come in, and I'm not sure they fully understand the importance of the sign ban. But that was always intended to be to identify the building between the cornice and the storefront glass would be a section in a flat band. And we've seen it on a couple of applications that have come in. You saw it on the, what was considered the Boston Button Store one. That one still retained this band. That's an important thing. The other thing to notice is many of our downtown commercial buildings have recessed entrances. That's complicating today because ADA access into the building is compromised or can be compromised. You can retain those. First of all, the reason that they did it was to double their display area. You have a display window in the front, but then also you would run an angled glass wall into the doors and you continue your display Those were elevated. You remember we talked about the bulkhead. The bulkhead is this section down here, which usually frames up and pushes up all of the display elements for visibility. And many of our downtown buildings also use these bulkheads to actually access the basements when they used to run coal down to lower levels. So they may have prismatic glass in them. Nowadays, many of them have been boarded over. You don't see them so much. This brief is available. I think you guys know that the National Park Service has these preservation briefs. They are very helpful. It's just a cover of Preservation Brief Number 11, which talks about storefronts and what the important elements of those are and how to bring it back. So looking at the Nichols Block— oh, by the way, that's another Manserville. You see what he did here. Again, large arches here, radiating brick patterns, and then picking up. This is just incredible articulation. You don't see that. Matter of fact, you don't see any of this detail in any modern buildings today. But what he did here that was important is that he also continues the spring line The spring line is where the arch begins. He carries the spring line across all the bars of the windows. So they're broken up into a module that aligns itself with that very logically. But I wanted you to see the storefront here. This was all covered up. I was actually involved in this project, and Fleet Bank was in here for a while. They basically stuck some big plywood things over this, and nobody knew what was back there. But I had an idea that Mansur had started to use cast iron more so. So about this period, 1889, he would have used cast iron columns, which you see here, and then he would have had cast iron beams here. So cast iron was just becoming very possible, a new material about the turn of the century, or just a few years before. So you're starting to see that influence in the downtown. Either they're stone pilasters or columns, or they're cast on. But here we're able to maintain the recessed doors and still make them accessible. When a person gets up to a certain place, you can push the button and the door will open in. So, good example of, again, what's important, character-defining features on this building. are the storefront that was returned pretty much to the way it originally looked. [Speaker C (unidentified): But here's the—] you guys had a couple months ago, you had an application for the Boston Button Store. You remember that? That was this building right here. [Speaker C (unidentified): Was—] it's where the Happy Endings shop is now. [Peter Keebler: Yeah.] They come in for— I think they were doing some work across here. And what we recommended was that they maintain the same coloration. You can see they painted black columns, and they came all the way up and included the cornice above the sign band. So you, the commission, said that's important to keep— do that. So now when you look at it, you'll see that 's all integrated. You got the columns painted in the same color as the, as the cornice and the band above it. So here's what Early, the very earliest forms of storefront were more like large windows. And so what you're seeing here is pretty much just a large window. And there was framing systems that you could order. This was 1903 or so. So you could send away for these pieces and you could put together, you know, a storefront in wood. So wood was the common material. They knew what they were trying to do was to get displays. This has a recessed Entrance, by the way, which was kind of modern at that time. This building, by the way, if you look at it today, actually added in time another floor above this. So you have 1, 2, 3, you have a 4-story building. And they kept this cornice line right here, and Manser did some new arches up above it. So it's now a 4-story building. [Speaker C (unidentified): Interesting.] After the wooden, the storefront systems that came up after that, which were more in keeping that we see today and consider modern, around 1905, Conyer came up with a metal clamped storefront system that we see and still see in some of the downtown buildings. The very fine perimeter metal and the storefront glass set into that. This was considered modern storefront design. [59:34] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Was that a regional thing, or is that— [59:37] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Nationally. Nationally. And components and parts for buildings could be ordered. And in this case, Corneer, which I think was in Michigan, and they may still be there today, they're still a large supplier of aluminum. This may be Conair right here that was used in this project. So over here on the left, you kind of see these, are the parts of a commercial building in the downtown. Building here is the storefront again happening below the storefront cornice. You oftentimes have another cornice at the top of the building. Matthew, how do we get rid of that? [1:00:14] Speaker C (unidentified): Hover over the green part. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Oh, yeah.] Shouldn't do that. [Matthew R. Weitkamp: All right.] Maybe a little press. [1:00:23] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: There we go. Thank you. So this is what we see in the downtown. It's very much like this. But one thing that's important to notice is this is really a way to architecturally align things so they balance with transom windows. You have lower display windows, you have higher transom lights, which bring light into the interior of the shop, which was usually rather deep. Standard module for commercial buildings is basically a 12-foot width module and a 60-foot depth. So in a 60-foot depth, you have to charge light off the ceilings to get bottom of that. So transoms were important. So they would run that glass up as high as they could. The doors are usually around 7. So we're adding about another 3 feet. So you're at about 10 feet at this point. If you want to see what that looks like, any of the buildings that— this is a good example right here. So 7 feet, other 3 feet for the transoms. But the transoms are important, is the reason that I'm mentioning those, is that if they're looking to take those away, that would reduce the character-defining features of this building to tell you that it was a historic commercial building. Again, the bulkheads in Bangor, these bulkheads, when they were frame up to display, kick the display up a few feet. These were oftentimes used, they either provided prismatic glass which was light into the basement, so it had a little cutout and that light would go down, or they would be panels that could come off and they could send the coal down there. So 1840 to 1880, the cast iron storefronts were really coming into popular use. Louis Morrison owns a building up here at the end of Columbia Street. This is a beautiful building if you look at it today. This is the one last bay of what was a continuation of and repeating that same form all the way down to the next street, which is the one that's in whatever that cross street I think it is in front of the Baptist Church. So all the way down, that was all taken out in the Coe Building, which was— you, at your last meeting, you did an ice cream shop on the corner of the Coe Building on Main Street. This is the Coe Building. But sorry. but you can see very clearly here the use of cast iron. These are cast iron formed columns here, a return This was all maintained in the original building, and this very thin development that you see right here maintaining the glass is very close to what the original Conair windows were. So it was a system. It was becoming more scientific and more controlled around the nation. And I think if you look closely here, you can see what was probably light provided down into the basement. That's important that if that exists, that's an important characterifying feature to try to keep. So the commercial building architectural styles that we're going to talk about briefly, we're not going to spend a lot of time. But in downtown Bangor, we have such an incredible mix. You pretty much have most of these styles covered. So in Bangor, if you look at the detailing of the Opera House, the Bangor Opera House, it's an Egyptian Revival building. Egyptian Revival was not uncommon for theater buildings from the West Coast all the way to the East Coast. So look closely and you're going to see these wonderful little pylon details like you see here. You're going to see all sorts of really wonderful details carried all the way up and down the building. They've done a pretty good job of keeping this one. Here again is an important very important parapet detailing at the top done in formed metal. So Egyptian Revival, you don't see a lot of that. So starting in the beginning periods of Bangor's development, the Federal period, buildings from the early 1830s going up or even older, there are simplified massing. The massing means the bulk of the building, the shape of pieces that put it together. There's symmetrical openings, as you can see here, a pattern of symmetrical openings. Double-hung windows were common. On this building, which was done down below, some seminary, it might have been housing for students, like in an overflow. It's called the Louder House, 1831, just about the same time as Main Hall. And what you're seeing here is a projection This was actually done for fire protection, still done today, where they extend the construction, the demising walls between units goes up through the roof a few feet. And what we have here at the very end is what's called a parapeted gable. So whenever the gable at the end extends above the roof, that's considered a parapeted gable. You don't see that a lot either. Again, we talked about this one, Greek Revival style. This is Pure Greek Revival. The whole building is Greek Revival. If you look closely, you're going to see what look like pilasters on the outer edges and then a frieze band up above. We talked about that in the residential ones. The frieze band of the entablature is made up of these components, and that you're seeing them built right here. So that appears to be supporting it. It's just a suggestion of support. And this is really classical. This is Doric columns. What we found when we tore up the one— tore apart the ones on the Hill House, which was recently restored up the street, the historic Hill House, was their Doric columns like this. Each one of those curves or scallops, every 2, is a separate stave that joins the next stage. So they're cut on a slight angle. to fit together tightly. And inside, they're hollow. Inside, they actually have a— at the bottom, they have a block that they all nail to. In the middle, there's a block to nail to. And at the top, there's one. It's incredible that they could mill this out to such high precision. And you see they're tapered. So imagine considering the taper and the joining those pieces. It's just an incredible amount of war that was able to be done in wood, which is quite remarkable. [1:06:54] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): The Hill House, the historical design? [1:06:56] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Yeah,. We just restored the portico on that and had to take all the columns down. So Queen Anne, we don't have a lot of Queen Anne commercial buildings, but here's one on Main Street across from the Banger House. Queen Anne has these lovely, nothing symmetrical. Previous styles are very symmetrical. This is Purposely not symmetrical. They will join unique massings of the building, like turrets coming into the corner of a hip roof. They're just going for it. And it has lovely pattern work, you know, that goes on across the buildings. This is all critical stuff to the definition of the character-defining features of this sort of building. Geometric shapes, big arches. Panel work. Really quite lovely. Richardsonian Romanesque is what you're seeing here. Romanesque style, it was based on H.H. Richardson, who was a very famous national architect, and he was promoting this style. And many of his buildings were done in stone and brick. And so what you're seeing is this is the influence of Romanesque on buildings like ours, Nichols Block in the downtown. There is stonework here. Oftentimes it's very heavily rusticated on Romanesque buildings. So you see arch-shaped features, elaborate cornices like you see here. You see detailed brick cladding on the building. The Wilbur Mansur 1892. By the way, that was one of the few survivors of the Great Fire. Fire burned all around it. And actually, if you see the photographs taken right after the fire, many of the windows in the back, many of these front windows were all busted out where embers had come into the building, but they were able to keep it, you know, from catching on fire. [Peter Keebler: Wow.] So the way the story goes, I know you're getting tired of seeing Mansur's work, but I can't help it. Here he's done something magnificent up at the seminary campus. This was the gymnasium, 1894. Look at the amount of brickwork that's done here. If you ever get a chance, just pull into the parking lot there and just walk around this building and look at what was done, because it's amazing. It's stunning. So they've done some changes in the windows over time. I'm not sure if they came to Commission for this. Some of this may be original, some of it may not be. But again, we have products that are going to last a long time: slate, copper, brick, all weathering pretty good. This building, 1897, so he's busy in that period. Did the Host 5 Firehouse up there on State Street. Again, a very detailed Romanesque-style building with a tower. This the bell tower. Very interesting. Take up a collection for this one after the meeting. [Peter Keebler: Yes, please.] We all want this to be saved, and there's some hope that they're working towards that. That's all I'll say. Main Steeples Fund is something they're trying to seek money for, so there's hope that could be saved. This one is an Italianate building. You see up Paired windows, paired archtop windows. You see paired brackets. All of this speaks about an Italianate building. Emphasis is on the massing over verticality. By that, what they mean is each one of these tower sections are broken up into discrete mass pieces that all fit together. The architect wanted you to see that and study that. And just be amazed by it. There is a twin to this building, almost a verbatim twin. The architect John Towle did another one in Portsmouth. It's on their historic downtown square, and it is almost exactly like this. Did it about 2 years later. So in the downtown Bangor, in a section called West Market, we have Second Empire buildings all in a row that were saved. Thank goodness they were saved. Important buildings. You'll see mansard roofs on these. Window hoods are pretty common. You see the hoods above the windows articulated. A lot of detail goes into these buildings. Detailed slate roofs. These are slate that usually have geometric patterns to them. That's the Phoenix Inn in the middle. Brackets at the upper cornices. lot of very detailed work. This actually was not copper originally. This was slate, believe it or not. The early photographs of that very important group of buildings right here in the downtown. So we've had applicants come in and do things to their storefronts, not making them any worse, but they're certainly not trying to get back to what they would originally look like. Because to find the— when you as a commission review these, you might, if the applicant doesn't provide it, you might want to search out what the original storefronts looked like before and maybe share that with the applicant to see if they understand the importance of things. This style called neoclassical really is powerful. It's the sort of thing like a courthouse building like this, when you're walking in here and looking up at this architecture above you, know serious business is going on in this building. That's what it's telling you. This is a serious building and very powerful, very well made. Again, and articulated in such a way that any changes they did— the commissioners did change the windows here. They went to a modern window, but they kept the exact pattern of the windows. So they had transoms above these operable casements. They maintained that around the whole building, and they didn't mess with these ones up here, which are rather important. So we have a stone base basically to, this front arch gable top. Strongly symmetrical, these buildings are. The Bangor Savings Bank is a good example of the historic building, of a neoclassical building. They basically threw everything at it. They've got classical shapes here based on early and ancient Greek designs with these pediments over the windows, the detailing of those. A lot of detail for a very small building. This is unique, very unique building in Bangor. It's Prairie style, basically based on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. [Peter Keebler: Mm-hmm.] It's prairie homes, which were low and they were stretched out, and they were designed to merge with the landscape. He was trying to develop patterns of— that would repeat the horizontal lines, which you see strongly articulated here, that basically anchor it to the ground. So you may have a hipped roof, you have deep overhangs like this. This was designed as a Bangor Railway electric substation. So in 1911, this was really designed as an electrical substation. And you look at what the architect did was actually, these are actually components as part of the electrical systems in the building. And what he did here was on the soffits, It picks up this rather interesting pattern, which maybe speaks a little bit about what was going on in the building. You know, I— that's just my take on it. This is a building that's come to the commission a couple years ago. Down here, they had some work that they repaired on a flat roof section. they did a good job. So whoever's keeping this building has been actually doing a fairly good job. This is a later style, Deco. This is a Deco building on the left. That's the Telephone Exchange Building. And you had within the last, what, year or 2, that Hastings Transportation Building came in up on Broadway that was designated now listed on the National Register. The difference is that Deco has a vertical emphasis. the height and the tallness and the tower. And modern is more of a horizontal axis. So you kind of see that in the differences between these 2 buildings. But look at the entry detail. Again, this just bores me. Every time I go by here, I see something different. It's an amazing group of pieces that make up this Deco entrance, and it continues on all the way into the building. And I've not been in the lobby, but people say you got to go to the lobby because they carry the deco style. [Peter Keebler: Mm-hmm.] So there's a lot of really important pieces here that if you affect, you're going to have a serious impact on the character-defining features that tell you what this building is. And they did replace their windows, I think within the last 20 years or so. They came to the commission, they put back windows. almost exactly like the windows that were there. They've been to the commission because of all of this antenna work that goes up on the roof. Every time they make a modification or expand that, they come to the commission for that. I don't think that really has a lot of influence over this, but that's the commission's decision. And then what we consider just modern, from, as International Style that came from Europe in the 1920s, 1930s. so this building, that's sad building up on State Street, was probably once a really attractive building. I can't see. and, the inside, I've been through this building inside. And it's too bad because some of the detailing inside really feels quite, interesting. So they used a Roman brick here. Next time you go by, if you look closely at the size of these bricks, they're like stretched way out. They're very flat and they're long. And the intent there was to, again, for layering, to make it feel like it stacked up and merged to the ground a bit better. So this is modern. This is called curtain wall. All of this work that you see here is curtain wall. This building, the Moulton Library up on Union Street, this is all curtain wall. Curtain wall systems are now, and they're still used today in modern buildings. Curtain walls are basically systems that go from the roofline down to the first floor, and they basically lay in, sections, and they're modular. So you get a very modular look to the building. You get something that has patterns to it that look much alike. I think if somebody came in and wanted to put in some double-hung windows here or something like that, you might say, that's going to impact the character-defining features of the building. And modern, also can look, very much like this building in the downtown, which is a powerful expression. It's a structural expression. They wanted you to see how the building is structured. So they carry all of the structure and the frame lines out to the outer edges, and then they fill it in with glass, which is great. This was an Eden Tarbell building. And that is it. Exhausted. [1:18:54] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): You're not going to talk about an excellent example of Brutalist architecture? [1:18:58] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Oh, I should. We should have some Brutalist in here. But I think the point is, using the styles, if they go contrary to what we would consider, this is defining that style of building, that can be serious. Little bits and pieces and changes here and there, you might argue, can go one way or another. But if they're doing things like changing window forms significantly, and especially a lot of stress here was on storefronts. So you understand what storefronts supposed to do, how they're supposed to look. And, right down the street here, the Pearl Building is being worked on. We've all seen work going on in that. They're basically gutting that building. So you see, like, they're— they've got, chutes coming out of the side of the building and they're dropping materials down. they will be coming eventually to the commission, and I'm real anxious to see what they're going to do with their storefront. 'Cause that building had really unique storefronts to it. Yeah, once upon a time. So that's all I got for you. [Speaker C (unidentified): Thanks, Mike.] Yeah. [1:20:07] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Mike, I have one question. I don't know if you know, but the Prairie Style building in Bangor, do you know what's inside of it? [1:20:16] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: I've not been in it, Rebecca. It might be nice if we could find a way to get in there or see if they would let— I suspect it's equipment. It's probably electrical equipment still. I don't know that, but I think that's still it. I guess we could— [1:20:38] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): It's maintained so well. I just— it's impressive if it's just electrical equipment. [1:20:43] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Truly it is. Truly. Yeah. [Speaker C (unidentified): What's that?] It's so lovely. Yeah, well, just beyond it is also the— I think it's called the Thomas Building, where Thomas rods used to be made. Fly rods, the world-famous fly rods. So you look at that one just beyond it, Rebecca, up on the hill, going up the hill, right? That one has all the kit, and it actually is wooden storefronts, transom windows, you know, display windows, all pretty much original. I think they've been to the commission maybe once or twice in the past for some very minor changes. That's where One Bluefin is now. [Peter Keebler: Yeah. Hmm.] So yeah, there's, I mean, the distinction is Bangor has a lot of unique buildings, commercial buildings, and we didn't get into churches here at all, but all the churches would be considered more commercial. So, yeah. [Peter Keebler: Awesome.] Well, keep up the good work, you guys. [1:21:45] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Thank you. That was very awesome. [1:21:47] Speaker C (unidentified): Thank you. [1:21:48] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Those are so helpful. Yeah. Might all make sense when you get a certain application to come in. [1:21:56] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah, it gives us the language to use. [1:21:59] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Again, I will say that the pre-application meetings that we've been having, Have been beneficial. Yeah, that applicant that came tonight, I think they benefited quite a bit from the pre-app. [Peter Keebler: Awesome.] And sometimes applicants, you gotta picture, I mean, they think they're coming to this really stubborn board who's gotta inspect what they want to do with their project. And sometimes a pre-app will settle that out, you know what I mean? And make them feel comfortable that, you know, this process, and you're going to be fine. [1:22:37] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): No one's going to— [1:22:37] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: it's not your project necessarily. But so anyway, take a look at buildings. Now that you know a little bit more about commercial buildings, take a look at them and you can see the components of how they're built. It's really quite, sensible. And we have some beautiful buildings in the town. We're very lucky. [1:22:59] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): do you know the one that— I know you know it— it's right beside the, high school, John Bapst High School, and it used to be in Prudential Building, I think? [Matthew R. Weitkamp: Yes,.] That is— my dad pointed out that 's so interesting because the, what do you call it when you, put the bricks together? Like, the horizontal's one color and the vertical's another color. [1:23:25] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: And,, and to add to that, Rebecca, they actually raked out the horizontal joints so they're recessed. The, mortar is recessed about a half inch or 3 quarters. [Peter Keebler: Wow.] Do you know where she's talking? It's a one-story brick building, has some lovely narrow windows with arch top on them. Yeah, just is well done. Cooper Milliken was a very talented local architect. He did that building. [1:23:50] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Wow. That was the original location of Shaw House. [1:23:53] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Was it? [Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah.] Okay. [1:23:55] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Well, it's on the same side as John Bapst, but right on the other side of the corner. [1:24:00] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: It's up at the corner. Yeah. It's up at the corner. [Speaker C (unidentified): Yep.] I think it's, it's, it's like some real estate company now. [Speaker C (unidentified): Something.] Berkshire Hathaway. [Peter Keebler: Yeah. Yeah.] So, I mean, modern buildings. modern, 50 years and older now can be considered for National Park Service listing. So this building down here, the last building we closed with, could be considered an important, you know, historic building. Speaks about the time. One of the things we're losing quickly in the nation are these wonderful gas stations. The gas stations that were done with porcelain panels and stuff like that. [Peter Keebler: Yes.] So a lot of times they're tearing that stuff all apart, but there's Sweat's Garage up on State Street, up near the hospital, has maintained all of that stuff. They even have the red double band going. I'm like, please just save that because it's so unique. There was a little big filling station in Searsport that they, bulldozed to make room for a culvert. [Speaker C (unidentified): Did they?] You had like this drive-through little porta-covey. I kind of remember that. [1:25:15] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Yeah, I'd imagine the abatement that they have to do for the filling stations, probably. [1:25:19] Speaker C (unidentified): Probably. [1:25:20] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: Oh yeah, that's true. That's true. [1:25:31] Peter Keebler -- Member (likely Chair): Thank you. Yeah, glad to do it. [1:25:34] Speaker C (unidentified): That concludes our new business unless anybody has anything to add. Okay, so please, my one mighty power. [1:25:44] Matthew R. Weitkamp -- Associate Member: So if you guys