Hospital’s New Main Street Entrance Marks Major Milestone in $55 Million Campaign.

Carrie Jones

Jul 31, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Geddy’s.

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BAR HARBOR—Mount Desert Island Hospital’s new Main Street entrance is set to open this October.

It’s the next phase of the hospital’s $55 million campaign project that is scheduled to take multiple years and has been largely funded by philanthropists and donors, such as Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order, who summers in Seal Harbor and donated $10 million to the hospital project last year.

Multiple grants have also funded the project.

The hospital is undergoing a $42 million expansion of its in-town Bar Harbor location off Main Street. The hospital broke ground on that 42,600-square foot expansion this past year.

“MDI Hospital has been here serving our community for 130 years. This project is about ensuring our campus and facilities meet the needs of our community today, and for generations to come,” Christina Maguire, president and CEO of MDI Health told the Bangor Daily News this week. “Expanding our emergency services and creating a more visible, accessible main entrance and dedicated [emergency department] entrance will mean quicker access to lifesaving care for our year-round residents, seasonal residents, and visitors alike.”

The project on a 5.61-acre parcel at 10 Wayman Lane has been approved by the town and state.

The critical access hospital gives Mount Desert Island first responders 24-hour hospital access. Though it serves a town of approximately 5,500, and an island of approximately 10,500, in the summer months through October its volumes at the emergency department triple. Maguire often cites that in 2023, Maine had approximately 15.3 million tourists and, she says, that a quarter of those came to Mount Desert Island.

Those people want to know where the hospital is when they need it. They also want to receive care from a modernized facility, Maguire has said at past meetings.

An Emergency Department addition is the next phase of the hospital’s Master Campus Expansion project, which was approved by the Planning Board in March 2025. The current emergency room entrance, last renovated in 2000, is at the rear of the hospital and not easily visible from Main Street, which is one of the main thoroughfares through town.

For years, officials have been worried that the emergency entrance and ambulance bay were hard to find for people who are not regular users of the hospital. Accessibility for people with mobility issues has also been a concern.

The plans would triple the emergency department’s current footprint to 10,524 square feet.

That expansion would allow for 16 care spaces, numerous triage areas, better airflow (to reduce potential for infectious airborne disease spread), and more patient rooms.

All of that will have the modern infrastructure and equipment needed to support it as well as a new emergency room patient entrance and covered bay for ambulances.

The project required demolition and construction on the site to create a new Main Street entrance, a visual orientation toward Main Street, that expanded emergency room, and other changes. It involved absorbing a short road that went through the site and demolition of some structures.

The redesign allows more visibility to the emergency room. In the summer of 2024, some people with emergency room needs were unable to easily find the hospital’s emergency department, which is tucked away a bit toward the rear of the property, she’d said.

“Their health was at risk. Their lives were at risk,” Maguire has said.

It was a risk the hospital—and its donors—found unacceptable.

Also in Bar Harbor, the Conners Emerson School’s new building is expected to be completed later this fall. Additionally, the new wing of the Jesup Memorial Library held its grand opening this summer.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

Click here to see campus improvement updates (monthly)

Click here to see the hospital’s site plans and phases

If you would like to receive the monthly Campus Improvement update emails please email media@mdihospital.org

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