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Sometimes significant milestones in Bangor history are hiding in plain sight. Some of the shops and bars you frequent, the institutions you bank with and even the publication you’re reading right now are all examples of businesses that, in some cases, were founded decades before electricity, telephones and cars came to town.
Making it to 75 years, as Fairmount Hardware on Hammond Street has as of this year, is a major accomplishment. One hundred years or more? Even more impressive.
These are some the oldest still-operating businesses in Bangor. Did we miss one? Let us know at [email protected].
Bangor Savings Bank, founded 1852
Bangor Savings Bank was founded in 1852, in the upstairs offices of the Circular Block on West Market Square. Its first president was Elijah Hamlin, brother to Hannibal Hamlin, a longtime Bangor resident and President Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president. The first deposit was for $440, made by a man named Edmond Abbott. Today, Bangor Savings has more than $7 billion in assets and is the largest bank in Maine, located on a sprawling campus on Bangor’s waterfront.
W.A. Bean & Sons, founded 1860
We know W.A. Bean as the sole Maine producer of one of the state’s most iconic food items: the red hot dog. But before the crimson red dogs became synonymous with Maine, W.A. Bean was one of many Bangor butchers, a one-man operation run by founder Albert Bean, operating out of a small Ohio Street storefront. By the 1890s, the company had moved downtown, and stayed there until 1968, when it moved to the Bomarc Road warehouse it occupies today. The red hot dogs remain incredibly popular, as do its honey-glazed hams, array of sausages and other cuts of meat.
Bangor Daily News, founded 1889
Hey, this one looks familiar! The Bangor Daily News is one of the oldest continually operating businesses in Bangor, and has been owned by members of the same extended family — the Jordans and the Warrens — for nearly all of its 136 years. It’s also one of only a handful of independently owned daily newspapers left in the entire country. It was located on Exchange Street in downtown Bangor until 1954, when it moved to its longtime headquarters at 491 Main St. In 2015, it moved back downtown to One Merchants Plaza. After more than a century, the business of the news has changed dramatically — but the core mission to keep Mainers informed and connected to their communities hasn’t changed at all.
Bangor Window Shade & Drapery, founded 1912
It might surprise you to learn that the oldest retail business still operating in downtown Bangor is a shop that sells curtains, shades and other window dressings. Bangor Window Shade & Drapery opened in 1912 and has offered custom drapery and window treatments for more than 100 years, much of it out of its longtime location at 105 Main St., in the historic Adams-Pickering Block.
The Waverly, founded 1918
They may have unofficially added “New” to the name of the business when it was forced to move from Exchange Street to Merchants Plaza in downtown Bangor in 1974 during the urban renewal era, but the Waverly is far from new. It’s the oldest restaurant or bar in Bangor by several decades, and it’s been owned and operated by the Puiia family for more than a century. It’s still a warm, laid-back place to have a drink, play some pool and catch up with old friends.
The Main Tavern, founded 1939
Another long-standing downtown Bangor business is the Main Tavern, which since 1939 has welcomed people from all walks of life through its doors at 152 Main St., the building where it first opened more than 80 years ago. It’s had lots of different names over the years — Peter’s Candlelighter and the Jaguar, to name a few — but the Brountas family has remained a constant. And, for the past couple decades, so haven’t the popular karaoke night.
Fairmount Hardware, founded 1950
This staple of the Bangor retail landscape celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, and remains one of just a few independent hardware stores still operating in the Bangor area. It added a bottle redemption service in 2021, so this locally owned business has kept up with the times.
