Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
What was once a small hospital and nursing home near downtown Camden is for sale for $1.3 million.
Built in 1903, the 6,830-square-foot building on Mountain Street is now a multi-family home with three units — two on the bottom floor with a third unit that includes the second and third floors.
The front portion of the ground floor serves as a two-bedroom, one-bathroom short-term rental. The back is a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment used as a long-term rental. Each unit has its own kitchen, living space and private entrance.
The second and third floors make up a grand “owner’s suite” with eight rooms and three bathrooms, according to Victoria Condon, designated broker and owner of Dwelling in Maine. The many rooms in the upper floors could be used as bedrooms, offices, home gyms or dens.
“It’s a unique property because there’s so much square footage,” said Condon, the listing agent for the property. “The upstairs unit is larger than a lot of the houses in the area.”
The multi-family was listed on July 17 with an asking price of $1.3 million. That’s more than double the median sale price for a home in Camden, which Redfin placed at nearly $617,000 in May.
Since then, Condon said she has heard from several local residents who were born in the hospital, sought care there or had relatives stay in the nursing home.
The building served as the Camden Community Hospital, which had six patient rooms and an operating room, beginning in 1927.
Documents provided by Condon show the hospital replaced another that Eunice Gale opened less than a mile away in 1926, but soon had to close due to financial reasons. The town didn’t want to lose the resource, so local groups raised money to purchase the home on Mountain Street to become the new hospital.
The site treated patients until 1958 when a new medical facility was built on Elm Street. The Mountain Street building then became a nursing home until the Zontini family purchased the building in 1997. The family renovated it to be the multi-family home it is now, according to Condon.
The sellers bought the home in 2016 for $665,000, property records show.
Aside from the home’s sprawling size and rich history, the property is full of unique details, such as stained glass windows, a turret, a butler’s pantry and a custom kitchen.
Outside, the property offers two separate parking areas, a one-car detached garage, wraparound front porch, back patio and sizable garden.
The home’s configuration places the owner’s suite above the road, giving it a sense of privacy despite being a five-minute walk from downtown Camden. This arrangement makes it ideal for “someone who loves to be in the center of town but also wants to offset their income with the two rental units,” without sacrificing space, Condon said.
“The design is smart — it doesn’t feel like an old property that’s been butchered up into units that shouldn’t exist,” Condon said. “I think it tells a story.”