‘It’s a pride thing’
Mural project revives downtown Bangor, long plagued by vacancies, revolving storefronts
Donald Jones remembers Bangor’s heyday in the 1940s, when he was a teenager. Thanks to the booming textile industry, the small Slate Belt downtown buzzed with workers who shopped in men’s and women’s clothing stores and kept two movie theaters and three car shops humming.
“For a small town of 5,000, we had most everything, and classy,” he said.
Life hasn’t been the same in this town since the mills and the quarries shut down. As the jobs disappeared, so too did the workers and the foot traffic in downtown shops. About a quarter of the downtown storefronts are now vacant, with businesses cycling through every four to five years.
But in recent months, artists have flocked to the vacant storefronts and massive brick exteriors, breathing life and color into the former center of commerce through a mural project called Beautify Bangor. Today, with 25 murals dotting the downtown, there’s at least one within view of every street corner.
Jones, now 98 and a self-described “gung-ho Bangorian,” is perhaps the project’s biggest cheerleader.
“We need something to give us a spark,” he said, beaming before a giant grapevine mural on the side of Bangor General Store. “And maybe this is it.”
In similar fashion, a small spark launched Beautify Bangor.
Business turnover has been a consistent problem for the Slate Belt, despite efforts to attract foot traffic to the rustic downtowns. The Historic Bangor Business Association, since it rebooted in 2016, has brought in music acts such as nationally renowned bassists Greg Smith and Bakithi Kumalo, but attendees don’t necessarily return and continue supporting local businesses, said treasurer Mike DeMasi.
“We wondered, ‘How can we get people to come in when there’s not an event?’” said DeMasi, president of VS Eyewear on Broadway.
Last winter, the HBBA met with the Slate Belt Chamber of Commerce, borough officials and Slate Belt Rising, a neighborhood partnership program of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, to brainstorm.
Laura McClain, the chamber’s executive director, reached out to area real estate agents for help. And in February, Faith Sarisky, broker at Realty Solutions of PA in Mount Bethel, ran with a simple idea.
Sarisky knew the landlord of a residence that could use some sprucing, a former shoe store on the corner where Route 512 meets Broadway and North Main Street — an entryway to town. With permission, she and her kids started painting.
The mayor suggested commissioning a local artist to paint a mural, so Shannon Almanzar painted some poppies, and Sarisky put up a sign for her real estate brokerage.
She called her competitors in town to spread the idea: Sponsor an artist and spruce up a storefront.
“It all kind of spiraled from there,” she said. “We all have the same goal, to have our town look nice.”
An agent of nearly 30 years, she used to feel hesitant about driving clients through Bangor, with its junk-filled vacancies and general lack of life. Now her friends from neighboring boroughs and even New Jersey are flocking there to take a walking tour of the murals and pictures in front of interactive ones, like the sets of wings lining the Murray Street Courtyard.
The work continues. On Wednesday, artist Claire Cashmareck was painting the boarded-up windows in the Murray Street Courtyard while actor/ director Daniel Roebuck lunched outside Bangor Trust Brewing, on break during the shooting of his upcoming film “Lucky Louie.”
The idea is also spreading to the other Slate Belt boroughs of Pen Argyl, Wind Gap and Portland, where Slate Belt Rising has begun commissioning murals on commercial properties through grant funding. The program has two slated in Portland before winter hits and is still securing funding and recruiting storefronts for next year, Director Stephen Reider said.
In Bangor, Sarisky said she sees the ripple effect: Homeowners are painting their facades and seem to be more aware about picking up waste.
“Last year you’d never see that,” she said. “It’s quite touching.”
It’s another means for businesses to advertise, too, DeMasi said. He commissioned a mural on the side of his building of a bear wearing glasses, which he says people love to take photos of, with his insignia in the frame.
Plus, it has renewed a sense of community downtown, he said. “It’s a pride thing,” he said. It’s difficult to gauge the effect the murals have had on foot traffic, given the crushing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Outside Bangor Trust Brewing, owner Leo Bongiorno said he sees at least a half-dozen groups of people walking through town gazing at them every weekend, where he hadn’t seen much by way of wanderers before.
“There wasn’t much to look at here before the paint started to fly,” he said. “I’ve hungered for this since I’ve been in business here.”
“Worst case, it’s beautiful,” DeMasi said, in case the hopedfor increase in tourism doesn’t pan out. “It really cleaned up places that needed cleaning up.”
Most of the murals have a small red “Slater” pickax hidden somewhere in frame, an homage to the town’s school mascot. A garage door behind a building that remains hollowed out from a fire two years ago is now home to an “Aspiring Artists Wall,” where children have painted their own mini-murals.
And in the now-colorful Murray Street Courtyard, artist Sarah Lanier tried to sum up the spirit of the project with writing on the wall:
“Bangor’s strength is in her people, and their roots run deep.”
Participants in the project will celebrate their progress with a wine-and-cheese party from 3-6 p.m. Saturday in the Murray Street Courtyard.