Bangor cryptozoology museum opening delayed

The founder of a Maine museum dedicated to “cryptids” such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is trying to raise about $500,000 before he can relocate from Portland to a historic building in Bangor.

While Loren Coleman originally planned to open the International Cryptozoology Museum at its new location on 490 Broadway this year — he and his wife now live in the Queen City — he now hopes to do so in mid-2025. First built in 1945, the property needs major renovations before it can welcome visitors.

“Hopefully by the end of 2025, we’ll move the whole museum up to 490,” he said Monday. “That will be our flagship museum.”

Coleman’s rent has increased significantly since he moved the Portland location of the museum to the Thompson’s Point development in 2016. The property on Broadway was a treasure that he couldn’t pass up, and although restoring it is an investment, owning the space will be more sustainable in the long term, he said.

The white building, which features a prominent Art Deco-style window, was added to the National Register of Historic Places last month. It’s an example of Streamline Moderne architecture, a style of Art Deco popular in the 1930s and ’40s that emphasized curved edges and long horizontal lines.

The property has sat empty since its last occupant, the Bangor Redemption and Beverage Center, closed in 2018. From 1945 to 1953, it was a bus garage and terminal for Hasey’s Maine Stages, and later it was home to taxi businesses, a dry cleaner and a used car lot, according to previous BDN reporting.

Coleman replaced the building’s block windows three months ago, but a lack of funding and winter weather has put many of the other renovations on hold, he said.

Adding three restrooms, replacing doors and windows, and pouring a new concrete floor are among the projects that need to be finished before the museum can open to the public. Coleman also wants to replace a garage door with a facade that matches the building’s architectural style.

“It’s rough inside,” he said. “We’re putting in electricity and outlets for the display cabinets. Upstairs, there’s an old restroom that needs to be demolished and a space that will turn into a library for staff.”

Coleman began fundraising and applying for grants in early 2022. A GoFundMe campaign to “save Maine’s streamline moderne gem” launched last June has raised about $3,400 of its $237,000 goal, and he has been speaking privately with prospective donors.

Coleman is also relying on his past work as a professor at the University of Southern Maine, where he wrote grant applications for research projects, to find funding. He is waiting to hear back from the city of Bangor, the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation and an Indiana-based foundation about awards.

“We are getting bits of money, like $25,000 here and $10 there,” he said, “but we’re waiting on big donations. A quarter of a million dollars would be nice.”

Coleman opened a cryptozoology shop at 585 Hammond St. in Bangor in 2021, but it closed in January, mostly due to staffing challenges, he said. It featured books, gifts and a rotating selection of Coleman’s vast collection of artifacts.

The space will be converted into a cryptozoology library exclusive to the museum’s more than 2,000 members across the country.

Coleman founded the International Cryptozoology Museum in 2003 in Portland, where it had a few different homes before landing at its current spot on Thompson’s Point. That location remains open, and its revenue is helping to cover restoration expenses in Bangor, he said.

“We’re rushing as much as we can to get this building ready,” he said about the Broadway property. “It’s going to be a gift to Bangor.”