Sunday, December 20, 2020
Saturday, December 5, 2020
Remains of the Homestead Nursing Home
The Homestead Nursing Home opened in 1960 on Route 1 in southern Maine, just a stones throw north of the Kittery outlets. Among the home's offerings were an outpatient unit, dental and eye exam rooms, a surgical center, and many more state of the art amenities. A staff of 15 doctors and 40 employees worked here full-time, but in 2001 it was announced that the facility was expected to suffer financial losses of $340,000, and that owner Bill Gillis - who had purchased the business just two years prior - would be shutting it down.
The building sat empty for many years following its closure, but despite the town's 2012 demands that the structure be torn down, hazardous conditions and high demolition costs postponed its destruction for many more years to come. Left to the elements, what remained here became a haven for vandals and explorers alike.
This room was of some importance judging by the large wall safe it contained, and I wonder if it were left open like this when the hospital was abandoned, or if some clever explorer was able to unlock it.
Never one to pass up the chance of exposing ourselves to a little asbestos, a few buddies and I roamed this building in the winter of 2017. What we found was one of the nastier abandoned buildings I've been in, but one that still had plenty of things to see.
The hospital also contained several common areas, large rooms that became canvases for graffiti artists ranging from unoriginal and unimaginative to some quite talented.
In many spots the walls and roof have deteriorated completely, opening the door for mother nature to enter in the form of vegetation during one half of the year, and snow during the other.
I'm suspicious that this is the actual number of days without an accident the facility ended with.
Nearly twenty years after shutting down, what sat as an eyesore for so many years is now touted as a success story by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Through a cooperative effort with a local developer they were able to tear down this building and divide the land into two separate parcels, and plans are now in the works to construct residential housing on one of those parcels and senior housing on the other. Meaning among other things, if you didn't get to explore this mess before now, you've missed your opportunity.
