BY SIDNEY BOKER ’21
Stephen and Tabitha King are turning their property in Bangor, Maine into an archive and writers’ retreat. Fans of Stephen King may be familiar with his family’s long-time home, which has become an attraction of its own. The main house, where Stephen King wrote many of his famous novels, is painted blood red and is surrounded by an iron fence decorated with spiderwebs and gargoyles. The property itself consists of 3.27 acres and two Victorian-style houses.
The couple’s attorney, Warren Silver, stated that the Kings have spent more time away from Bangor in recent years, choosing instead to visit their other properties in Maine and Florida. The proposal to transform their home was met with support from neighbors and the Bangor City Council, who approved the ordinance to change the zoning of the home as a nonprofit organization.
“The King Family [have] been wonderful to the City of Bangor over time and have donated literally millions of dollars to various causes in the community,” City Councilor Ben Sprague said to Rolling Stone Magazine. “Preserving his legacy here in Bangor is important for this community,” he added.
“I’ve been an avid reader of [Stephen King] since Iwas 14 and I’ve read a ton of his books,” Isabel Cooperman ’21 said. “I’m really excited about his house becoming a retreat because [it] is kind of an icon for him and his writing and I think it’s very fitting as a designated place for working on writing.”
According to Stephen King’s Facebook post, one house, at 47 West Broadway, will be the new home for the archives of his work, formerly held at the University of Maine. Access will be restricted and by appointment only. Having no public museum and limiting access to the archives is intended to prevent the house from becoming a tourist attraction.
The second house on the property, 39 West Broadway, will be turned into a writers’ retreat, equipped to house up to five writers at a time.
In a 1983 essay released by the Bangor Historical Society, Stephen King explained why he chose to live in Bangor, Maine.
“It was as much the novelist as the man who wanted to come to Bangor,” King said. “I had a very long book in mind, a book which I hoped would deal with the way myths and dreams and stories ... become a part of the everyday life of a small American city.”
The referenced “very long book” is the popular horror novel “It.” King also said he tried to capture the life of a place in his book “Salem’s Lot,” inspired by his hometown.
“[Stephen King] just seems to me like the perfect figure to sponsor this,” said Cooperman. “He’s kind of legendary!”