Great Northern Paper and the Hospital

Following the death of Dr. Bryant in 1938, his property was purchased by Dr. Lloyd Morey, who opened the Morey Osteopathic Hospital there that same year. Doctors Ernest Young and Martin Grumley had formed the Millinocket General Hospital, set up in the Curran house on Maine Avenue, which functioned until the Millinocket Community Hospital opened in 1955.

Within the mill, the unions had been talking about combining their efforts to promote a larger hospital that would be managed by the community. In 1948, the fundraising began. The unions pledged one week’s pay per employee, and GNP responded by putting up an initial grant of $150,000, later adding another $203,500 to the citizens’ pledges, for a total of $800,000. Additional funds came from the federal government and from the Ford Foundation.

The northern end of Somerset Street, near the new road to Brownsville, was chosen for a location, and construction began in 1954. The Millinocket Commmunity Hospital was opened for public viewing on March 12, 1955.

The 1950s saw additional growth in the town, almost to the extent of its capacity. 

I say this because, while most townships in Maine are about 200,000 acres in size, Millinocket was restricted to 7,500 until 1989, when 4,000 acres was annexed to the town, still leaving the town far short of the amount of land available to other towns in the state.

© Michelle Anderson 2005-2014