The King Commitment

The Bangor library proved its service to the community over decades of use and constant growth.  But by 1993 the stacks were so overcrowded that they had to be closed to the public and half of the front steps were such a wreck that the city building inspector insisted they be closed.

The library had an $11 million endowment was but it was reserved to buy new books.  What they needed was $8.5 million for a renovation and expansion.  Fortunately Bangor had a fairy godauthor to turn to...Stephen King.  King, and his wife, Tabitha had already paid for a detailed inspection of the library that reveal copious problems.  Now they came forward with a $2.5 million donation to kick off a capital campaign and the City Council matched the gift.  
But King did more than write a check, he appeared on Jeopardy (and won $10,000) and made a rare and profitable public appearance at the Bangor Auditorium for a book reading. He stood up, spoke out and rallied Bangor residents around a cause they could all benefit from.

His plan worked.  By 1996 the library had the money they needed and the work got underway for an addition and renovation.

The library actually moved into a warehouse across town and the bus system was re-routed temporarily to make sure everyone could still get their books.  One year later the 27,000 sq. ft. addition and 40,000 sq. ft renovation was ready for action with the following improvements (see the slide show at Robert A.M. Stern Architects):

• A new entrance bridging the old and new spaces

• Bright open book stacks, almost doubling the capacity
• Computerized catalogue system
• A new children’s library
• ‘The Bangor Room’ featuring books on the city’s early history and genealogy
• A lecture hall
• Gallery space along the front stairwell
• Accessible entry at the back of the building

Like many of the libraries I visited in Maine, the historic space is buffed out to its original glory and the new space is complimentary, inspiring and modern.

Stephen King has lived in Maine his entire life.  His occasional forays to other states, and once to England, always resulted in his return home.  After graduating from the University of Maine he worked as a teacher and a began writing short stories to bring in extra money.  His first blockbuster book was Carrie, published in 1973 after his wife retrieved it from the garbage.
King has called himself a “salami writer” saying his work is “good salami, but salami is salami”.
The facts is he is one of the most successful American writers of all time, loved and read by millions of fans around the world.  But you don’t even need to leave the city limits of Bangor to see what he has done for generations of residents.

Good Will-Hinckley

Photo from Good Will-Hinckley

The Good Will-Hinkley Carnegie Library opened its doors in Fairfield, Maine in 1907 to a group of orphan boys.
They must have thought they died and went to heaven.  First, George Will Hinkley takes them in off the street, feeds them, educates them and gives them a safe, warm place to sleep at night and then, with $15,000 from Andrew Carnegie, builds a perfect gem of a library.  

Rev. George Hinckley started life in Connecticut, where he was deeply affected by seeing boys who were homeless, hungry.  As a student at Guilford Institute in the 1860s, he befriended an orphan boy named Ben Mason, who ran away from his temporary slave labor conditions and was hiding out in Guilford.  George took him home to live with his family.

George grew up to become Reverend Hinckley and made his way to Maine where he followed his dream of opening a home for needy boys.  He settled in Fairfield, Maine on a farm he called Good Will Farm.   The farm expanded to Good Will-Hinckley School and became a haven for boys with no where else to turn.  Hinckley dedicated himself to creating a place for boys to improve their minds, spirits and bodies and become productive members of society.  

In 1905 he wrote to Carnegie, who agreed to give him $15,000 to build a library for his growing gang of boys.  Over the decades the Hinckley Library offered books and dreams to thousands of boys and when Hinckley died in 1950, at the age of 97 his vision had been fully realized.

But at the age of 102, the Hinckley Library was rudely awakened with the news that it was no longer needed.  The orphan boys had been moved to foster care or were working things out with the help of social services.  Policy changes in Maine had made the school financially impossible.  

Certainly there were children in need, but there was no money to operate a residential school and too much competition for donations.  Homes for wayward children had gone out of fashion.  The library doors were locked, the teachers fired and the campus ran dry.

Hinckley’s dream to “provide a home for the reception and support of needy boys and girls who are in need of a home and a helping hand, to maintain and operate a school for them and to attend to the physical, industrial, moral and spiritual development of those who shall be placed in its care; its spirit to be evangelical without being sectarian" seemed to have run its course.  

And then, divine intervention, or at least some good luck and timing.  The school’s next door neighbor, Kennebec Valley Community College needed some land for expansion.  Good Will-Hinckley happliy sold them 680 acres.  While every other state slashed school budgets, Governor Paul LePage wisely made the commitment to expand alternative, non-traditional schools for students who struggle to succeed in traditional environments.  He miraculously came through with $730,000 a year.

And finally, a re-invention...from “Good Will-Hinckley School” to the “Maine Academy of Natural Science on the Good Will-Hinckley Campus” (good luck getting that printed on a sweatshirt).  The school will become the state’s first magnet school to focus on environmental science and, in the process, support the state’s agriculture and forestry industries (Hinckley was also committed to agriculture and the school has an organic farm).

Glenn Cummings, the Academy’s new president and former Maine Speaker of the House, is leading the school through the change and is hopeful that they will be able to re-open the student residences.  

I just hope they wash their hands and take off their boots before tromping into the library.