Bear's Den Pubs

From Sipping Beers to Sipping Lattes

The 26th amendment loweried the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1971. In the next year many states, including Maine, lowered their legal drinking age to as low as 18. The feeling was if you were old enough to vote (and get drafted into the militaryto serve in Vietnam), then you were old enough to drink. The Damn Yankee Pub opened in the Memorial Union alongside the Bear's Den dining service in 1974, after UMaine successfully acquired a liquor license from the Maine Liquor Commission. With this, virtually every student on campus had easy access to alcohol.

Three years later the Maine legislature debated whether to change the drinking age to 19 or 20, and on March 17, Governor James B. Longley signed the bill to raise the drinking age to 20, which would take effect on October 24, 1977. This would effectively remove the Freshman crowd from the pub, as well as some Sophomores. Later in the fall, a moveable partition was added between the Bear's Den and the Damn Yankee Pub, dividing the drinking and non-drinking students. Throughout the late 70s and 80s, ads for alcohol in The Maine Campus newspaper slowly began to be replaced by drinking awareness ads. Additionally, Resident Life around this same time would begin cracking down on drinking within the dormitories and frats on campus (See below for examples of advertising).

In 1984, Ronald Reagan passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, raising the national drinking age to 21, limiting alcohol to mostly Junior and Senior students at UMaine. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, the Bear's Den and Damn Yankee section of the Memorial Union started to become more dedicated to live events and activities, with the addition of a disco ball for dancing in 1985, and a foldable stage with other theater-like amenities in 1987. The pub started to offer more non-alcoholic options and events, as well as restricting itself from selling alcohol on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, receiving mixed reviews from students. Over time, the Damn Yankee and on-campus drinking became less and less popular. 

The Memorial Union had a major renovation and expansion around 2001 that led to the removal of the Bear's Den and Damn Yankee. The new section of the Union included the Stillwater Canal Co. Pub alongside a new marketplace and eating area. This pub proved unpopular, and students described it as being lounge-like with too much open space and too many bright fluorescent lights. By January of 2004, the Class of '44 had fundraised and replaced the Stillwater Canal Co. Pub with the Class of '44 Bear's Den Pub (See above). This version of a campus pub achieved more success than its predecessor and would remain open until its permanent closure in 2020 due to Covid-19. It was eventually replaced by a Starbucks in 2024, after many members of the community wanted a national coffee chain on campus. Although the Class of '44 Bear's Den Pub no longer exists, you can find commemorative memorabilia near the Starbucks main entrance (See Below).

The temporary historical marker above will be on display in front of an entrance to the Memorial Union starting on April 27.