Can You Move It? Then, You Can Likely Have It
Despite High Hopes, Historic Caretaker's Cottage on Hospital Campus Risks Destruction
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Shops.
BAR HARBOR—A historic caretaker’s cottage that was once a part of an oceanfront estate is in danger of being torn down despite MDI Hospital CEO Christina Maguire’s hopes to find someone who will take it and move it.
Design Review Board Vice Chair Erin Cough asked about not seeing that Wayman Lane cottage on the site plan. The removal of the cottage on the hospital’s property is necessary for the hospital to go ahead with its expansion plans.
“That will eventually come down,” Maguire said.
“Are you offering it to anyone if they can move it?” Cough asked.
The hospital has offered the buildings set to be demolished to nonprofits and Island Housing Trust. One is encased in asbestos and there is a cost to move any structures slated for demolition.
“I hate it. I hate it, too. I hate demolishing those buildings. We’re offering it (sic: them) to anyone who wants one,” Maguire said.
It was a caretaker’s building for an estate that Cough, who is also the executive director of the Bar Harbor Historical Society said was a horse estate that extended to the waterfront. The building on the hospital campus is all that remains of the estate.
The building is not listed on the town’s “Appendix A,” which is the list of historic properties in the board’s overlay district.
EMERGENCY ROOM SIGN
Most of the changes in the hospital’s plan were site-related and mostly related to internal circulation and how people were arriving and exiting.
A bit of a hiccup was the emergency room sign, which is internally illuminated and therefore part of the design review board’s purview.
“We need a sightline from Main Street that shows that emergency sign,” Maguire said.
Maguire referenced the last time the hospital had brought the project to the board.
“Just that week, I had two patients who couldn’t find the emergency room and one was in cardiac arrest,” she’d said.
The board approved the hospital’s expansion and exterior redesign except for the internally illuminated sign.
Gurney Investment Properties Project Location: 1311 State Highway 102
Gurney Investment Properties project to allow for lobster storage at its 1311 State Highway 102 property was approved as presented. The site is almost directly across from Camden National Bank in Town Hill.
The major work on the 2.82-acre parcel would be the roadwork to make the storage areas (refrigerated shipping containers and potentially box trucks) accessible. The current road on site is mulch. The site had held a residence, which had been leveled by a previous owner. It was actually used for burn training for island fire departments in 2013.
The project calls for the installation of a new six-foot stockade fence, parking lot, and temporary lobster storage. They intend to clean up the lot and reconfigure the road. There will be seafood storage in eventually two self-contained units and a shed situated between those box units. A seasonal RV is also planned for the site for employees who drive from Holden or Newport. It went before the town’s planning board January 2 as well.
The goal of the fence is to hide the structures from the road.
Board members Mike Rogers and Bo Jennings had excused absences.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
https://barharbormaine.gov/271/Design-Review-Board
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01092025-3525
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Which building is “encased in asbestos” as this article says?