As readers of my book The Gathering Room - A Tale of Nelly Butler know, the opening pages of this story start with Captain George Butler and his wife returning to Franklin from Bangor. The city of Bangor Maine is my hometown and it is a city rich with history that many would find fascinating!! It’s hard to find anything in the city’s past that holds the imagination more than The Devil’s Half Acre. As quoted from a 19th century Bangor newspaper “…..the half acre devoted to his Satanic Majesty.” (Bangor Whig & Courier, October 29, 1870).

The Devil’s Half Acre, at it’s heyday, was the playground for the weary sailors and lumberman flush with cash. Geographically it would be located along the waterfront. It was an area where vice was a true business venture. Cliche’ phrases, from those who somehow thought themselves above such vices, were thrown at the area in the local press. Words like lust, temptation and sin only touched the surface of the evils that lurked there. Any and all primal desires could be satisfied in this section of Bangor. Liquor flowed despite the laws. Women of all ages and all skill levels were there to satisfy. Gaming houses provided opportunities for increase or decrease of the money bulging in the pockets of the freshly paid. Riots and fighting allowed these men the opportunity to expel pent up frustrations from a life that was hard at best. Murders and suicides were common place.

Years ago I did a tremendous amount of research into the Devil’s Half Acre. I so badly wanted to write a book about this piece of Bangor’s history. But as I so aptly pointed out in a journal entry from 2008… “If I were independently wealthy and could devote the amount of time needed I could finish this book next year. But I’m not, I’m a single mom who’s first priority is to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads.” So the research languished in my files for nearly 10 years.

They say writers write what they know, and as I began to fictionalize the story of the Nelly Butler Hauntings I realized that I could add what I knew about the Devil’s Half Acre into the storyline. The historical record in regards to Nelly’s ghost is clear that people came from as far away as Bangor to see the spirit. So it made sense to me to connect George and Nelly to Bangor. I wanted something dramatic and there is nothing more dramatic then the stories I had learned about the Devil’s Half Acre. And just like that I had a story!! The situation that Edna’s birthmother finds herself in and Nelly’s friend Lucy Giddings are all based on real people that I found in my research.

So how did Bangor’s waterfront earn the name of The Devil’s Half Acre? The late Dr. James Vickery, noted Bangor historian, mentioned that he had found a reference to “Hell’s Half Acre” in a circa 1859 Bangor newspaper called the Jeffersonian. He was surprised by such an early printed reference. Dr. Vickery said he felt the original name was Hell’s Half Acre but in polite Victorian times this could not be printed so the name was changed to Devil’s Half Acre.

There are numerous oral traditions that hold forth that the name was bestowed upon the area by a local religious leader, more then likely in a sermon warning his flock about the dangers of sin. However in all of my research I was unable to locate a name, date or any other recorded written reference to this as the source of the name. Oral history is history just the same and should be added to the fabric that becomes our local history.

What I did find was that Bangor’s Devil’s Half Acre is not unique at all. There are references to the name, and it’s companion name Hell’s Half Acre, all around the world most of them originating in the 19th century. The name is almost evenly distributed in associations with vice, mainly alcohol and prostitution. In 1806 the name was given to an area of liquor dealers in Standfordville, Georgia. In 1807 to a similar area in Miami County, Ohio. An area of rowdy bars and horse racing in Kentsville, Nova Scotia shared the name. Fort Worth, Texas gave the name to it’s red-light district. Manhattan and Chicago also gave the name to their slum neighborhoods. By the time the name became common place in Bangor in the mid 1800’s it was a well known phrase.

Because the tale of Nelly Butler’s ghost happened nearly 50 years before the Devil’s Half Acre earned its name I did not use the phrase specifically in the book. Nonetheless the conditions of Bangor’s waterfront and the people who resided there were no doubt in place long before it was officially named.

I want to end this week’s blog post with another excerpt from my journal entry of 2008. “When I do find time to write, it’s usually just an hour here or there, not enough time to do some serious researching or writing. So unless I meet and marry a man who will let me quit my job, I don’t see this book being finished anytime soon.”

Not going to lie Craig and I both laughed out loud when I came across that!! Funny how life turns out isn’t it? Proof positive that the power to create everything we need and want lies within each of us. All we have to do is put it out there into the Universe and eventually it will happen.