One of the largest homes I found in Bangor, Maine, was this Queen Anne stunner on High Street, just outside Downtown. After doing some research, I learned that the house was built in 1847 for Oliver Frost, a businessman involved in the lumber business. The home was likely Greek Revival in style based on the time period of the home and nearby houses. Frost is probably best known for his 1869 quote “The time may soon arrive when the three great cities of North America — Bangor, New York, and San Francisco — shall be representatives of the wealth, population, intelligence, and enterprise of the eastern, central and western divisions of our country.” He believed that the lucrative timber industry which led Bangor to become known as the “lumber capital of the world.” The city was home to numerous “lumber barons” and the river was often “jam packed with timber and lumber”. Even the nickname “Queen City of the East” evoked the era’s prosperity. Henry David Thoreau remarked, in 1846, that Bangor was “overflowing with the luxuries and refinement of Europe.” After his quote, the city began a period of decline, when the timber industry moved westward to the Great Lakes region and later, the Pacific Northwest. Frost’s home was later purchased by Egerton R Burpee, an engineer who worked in railroads. He hired Boston architect Arthur H. Vinal, to upgrade and enlarge the house in the then fashionable Queen Anne style we see today. The home has since been converted to commercial use with apartments inside.
Buildings of New England 