Who doesn't have memories of the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center?

I wasn't even born when the current facility was constructed and opened in 1955, but, like so many other Mainers some of my fondest memories, from childhood through adulthood, have been generated in that building.

From Shrine Circuses as a child, to watching my daughter graduate high school, to Garden Show rendezvous with family, to singing the National Anthem, I have spent many hours inside the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center.

Heck, I even had an office in the Civic Center portion of the building while I worked for the Bangor Convention and Visitors' Bureau several years ago.

I was personally familiar with the leaks, and some of the "hidden" hallways and rooms that existed between the Civic Center and Auditorium that haven't see the light of day, or public traffic in years.

All of those memories came flooding back today when I snapped this picture of the demolition process starting.

Cianbro took control of the building at the end of May and more than likely by the end of July the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center, that now sits in the shadow of its replacement, the Cross Insurance Center, will be gone.

Company Spokesman Alan Grover says asbestos abatement is part of the demolition process and when it's all said and done the steel will be recycled.

 

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