First ambulance, Eastern Maine General Hospital, 1900Item Contributed by
Text by Ann Trainor
Images from Eastern Maine Medical Center
In 1892 five physicians -- William H. Simmons, William C. Mason, Walter H. Hunt, Everett T. Nealey, and William E. Baxter -- realized the need for a hospital in the city of Bangor had become urgent and they set about providing one.
Bangor General Hospital was formed to serve Bangor and the surrounding areas.
Part I: 1892-1920
They leased the Mace house on State Street, at the foot of what is now known as Summit Avenue, for the new facility; its doors opened to patients on June 7, 1892. It consisted of an operating room and rooms for patients and treated 150 patients within its first year.
This hospital, now named Eastern Maine Medical Center, serves as the cornerstone of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and provides three-quarters of the primary-care hospital services offered in the Bangor area, as well as specialty and intensive care services to the northern two-thirds of Maine.
Part II: 1920s to the Present
Hospital annual reports were the source of most of the information presented: comments quoted without attribution have been taken from the report for the year indicated. Material quoted from the personal papers of Nellie Elden Benner, Mabel Hammons, and Vivian McDonald Dwyer, is from the collection of the School of Nursing Archive.
In September 1992, a centennial celebration in honor of Eastern Maine Medical Center’s "100 Years of Caring" was held at the Bangor Civic Center: A "walk through time" exhibit highlighted events from the hospital's first century of service.
The text from that exhibit forms the core of this chronology.