"1897 - On September 3rd 1897, during a meeting at the Marlborough Hotel in Bar Harbor, members of the Village Improvement Society conclude, “some form of hospital is both expedient and even now necessary.” A committee composed of local citizens and summer residents undertakes to raise $10,000 for construction of a “Bar Harbor Medical and Surgical Hospital.” Thus begins more than a century of convenient access to quality care for community members and visitors in the MDI region.
"1898 - The Bar Harbor Record reports completion of the 46-by-84-foot Colonial-style Hospital. Capacity is limited to 10 beds, five in private rooms: 'All that is possible has been done to make the building clean, comfortable, cheerful and convenient.'...
"1931 -Trustees rename the Hospital “The Mount Desert Island Hospital”, recognizing island-wide support for the institution.
"1937 -A new wing provides additional acute care rooms, an obstetrical area, and a Radiology Department.
"1947 - In October of the driest year on record, small fires mushroom into a devastating blaze. Between October 17 and November 14, flames devour 17,188 acres and 237 homes. Yet within Hospital walls, calm prevails. Volunteer fire crews stand guard as patients are moved from the main wooden structure to the brick wing; the following day, bed patients transfer to Eastern Maine General Hospital, Bangor.
"1962 - A new fire-resistant brick structure gives the Hospital its first real emergency room, its first pharmacy headed by a registered pharmacist, a new surgical suite with recovery room, and 57 new patient beds..." "Mount Desert Island Hospital History" at
Mount Desert Island Hospital [
https://www.mdihospital.org/about-us/history/ : accessed 04 December 2025]).
