Contributed by Bangor Public Library
Description
Hand-colored lantern slide showing the New England Telephone & Telegraph Co. (45 Hammond Street), one of the first buildings to catch after the fire jumped the Kenduskeag Stream early in the afternoon.
Newspapers reported that the girls who operated the switchboard stayed until almost the last minute, and that the last message sent out was a request to Boston that a replacement switchboard be sent as soon as possible. The destruction of the Exchange hampered communication from Bangor to other communites from the outset of the fire. Sensationalist New York newspapers reported that daring young men climbed to the burning roof to manually splice into the wire, stories which the Bangor Daily dismissed as an example of overwrought big-city journalism. The spiderweb of lines in the foreground demonstrates the extent of the damage to a central dispach.
About This Item
- Title: Telephone Exchange burning, Bangor, 1911
- Creator: Leyland Whipple
- Creation Date: 1911-04-30
- Subject Date: 1911-04-30
- Location: Bangor, Penobscot County, ME
- Media: Lantern slide
- Dimensions: 5.1 cm x 7.5 cm
- Local Code: Whipple #24, Library #172
- Collection: Whipple Lantern Slide Collection
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Telecommunication lines--Maine--Bangor
- Smoke--Maine--Bangor
- Telephone lines--Maine--Bangor
- Buildings--Maine--Bangor
- Bangor (Me.)--Fire, 1911
- Fires--Maine--Bangor
- Ruins--Maine--Bangor
- Streets--Maine--Bangor
- Hammond Street (Bangor, Me.)
- Telephone companies--Maine--Bangor
- Telephone operators--Maine--Bangor
- New England Telephone and Telegraph Company
For more information about this item, contact:
Bangor Public Library145 Harlow Street, Bangor, ME 04401
(207) 947-8336
Website
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