From the Bangor Daily News:
The Bangor library’s iconic, oxidized copper roof and dome are original to the building, which opened in 1913, about two years after a devastating fire left much of Bangor in ruins. The “Great Fire of 1911” took the majority of the original library’s 70,000-book collection with it.
A century after its trial by fire, the library and its more than 500,000 volumes face another threat — water.
The building’s 100-year-old copper roof is beyond repair and must be replaced, according to architects and engineers who have assessed the damage. That replacement is projected to cost about $3 million.
The library’s entire budget in 2012 was $2.25 million. To reach the $3 million figure, library officials are in the planning stages of an enormous fundraising effort.