Wilfred E. Mansur

Wilfred E. Mansur (1855–1921) was the most prominent architect in late 19th and early 20th century Bangor, Maine.
Life and career
He designed many private and municipal buildings, including the Penobscot County Courthouse and at least seven schools. His masterpieces are probably the Nichols Block and Columbia Building (both 1892), in which he used a Romanesque Revival style with exuberant patterned brickwork, and the Graham Building of 1911, among the most prominent landmarks in downtown Bangor. Mansur's largest number of commissions came following the Great Fire of 1911, which destroyed half of the city's commercial district (and a number of his own buildings). At least eleven Mansur-designed buildings are preserved on the National Register of Historic Places, many in Bangor's Great Fire of 1911 Historic District.
Personal life
Mansur's brother George I. Mansur was also an architect. After working in his brother's office for many years, George I. Mansur succeeded to the practice after his death.
Mansur was a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Architects, and the Maine Society of Architects. He was also a prominent Mason.
Mansur married in 1892, to Charlotte Elizabeth Brown of Bangor.
Architectural works
Bangor High School, Bangor, Maine (1882, burned 1911)
Green Mountain House, Acadia National Park, Maine (1883, burned 1884)
Green Mountain House, Acadia National Park, Maine (1885, demolished 1896)
Hersey Retreat, Stockton Springs, Maine (1885, burned 1908)
Howes Block, Belfast, Maine (1885)
I. O. O. F. Building, Old Town, Maine (1887)
Brewer High School (former), Brewer, Maine (1888, demolished)
I. O. O. F. Building, Belfast, Maine (1888)
Aroostook County Jail, Houlton, Maine (1889–90, NRHP 1990)
First Congregational Church, Brewer, Maine (1889)
Moosehead Inn, Greenville, Maine (1889, burned 1912)
House for Frederic H. Parkhurst, Bangor, Maine (1890)
Y. M. C. A. Building, Bangor, Maine (1890–91, demolished)
Orono Town Hall, Orono, Maine (1891–92, demolished)
Columbia Building, Bangor, Maine (1892–93)
House for Frederic H. Appleton, Bangor, Maine (1892–93)
House for Francis B. Denio, Bangor, Maine (1892–93)
Nichols Block, Bangor, Maine (1892)
Superintendent's house, Bangor Waterworks, Bangor, Maine (1892, demolished 2017)
Shaw Block, Greenville, Maine (1893)
Frisbie Block, Houlton, Maine (1894–95 and 1905)
Aroostook County Courthouse, Caribou, Maine (1895)
Addition to the Aroostook County Courthouse, Houlton, Maine (1895, NRHP 1990)
Gymnasium, Bangor Theological Seminary (former), Bangor, Maine (1895)
House for John N. Merrill, Bangor, Maine (1895–96)
House for Eugene C. Nichols, Bangor, Maine
Morse & Company Office Building, Bangor, Maine (1895, NRHP 1973)
Palm Street School, Bangor, Maine (1895, demolished)
Bangor Hose House No. 5 (former), Bangor, Maine (1897, NRHP 1997)
Moody Memorial Chapel, Good Will-Hinckley, Fairfield, Maine (1897)
Niben Club, Pushaw Lake, Orono, Maine (1897, demolished)
Surgical Building, Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor, Maine (1898–99)
Eastport Primary School (former), Eastport, Maine (1899)
Morse-Oliver Building, Bangor, Maine (1899, burned 1911)
Lodge, Mount Hope Cemetery, Bangor, Maine (1900, NRHP 1974)
Bangor Fire Engine House No. 6 (former), Bangor, Maine (1902, NRHP 1988)
Penobscot County Courthouse, Bangor, Maine (1902–05)
Addition to house for William M. Shaw, Greenville, Maine (1905, NRHP 2013)
Mansur Block, Houlton, Maine (1905–06)
Larkin Street School (former), Bangor, Maine (1906–07)
M. G. Shaw Lumber Company Office, Greenville, Maine (1906, demolished)
Houlton Town Office, Houlton, Maine (1907)
Hersey Retreat, Stockton Springs, Maine (1909)
Graham Building, Bangor, Maine (1911)
Central Building, Bangor, Maine (1912)
First National Bank Building, Bangor, Maine (1915)
Peirce School (former), Belfast, Maine (1915)
Preble Hall, University of Maine at Presque Isle, Presque Isle, Maine (1920–21)
Gallery of architectural works
Notes
References
Deborah Thompson, Bangor, Maine, 1769-1914: An Architectural History (Orono: U. of Maine Press, 1988)
Gregory Clancey (Me. Historic Preservation Commission), "Great Fire of 1911 Historic District", National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form, on file at Maine Historic Preservation Commission, 55 Capitol St., Augusta, Maine
Architects from Bangor, Maine
1855 births
1921 deaths