The old hospital at Fort McKinley, the last city-owned property at Diamond Cove on Great Diamond Island, on Friday. The hospital could be headed for redevelopment and future condominiums. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer Just off the main road on Great Diamond Island, on a small hill above the rest of the old Fort McKinley, sits an abandoned military hospital.
The once-bustling building has been vacant since the Army cleared out in 1947. Many of the windows are boarded up, while others are open, the glass entirely gone. The porch roof has collapsed partially, and much of the brick building is obscured by trees and overgrown bushes that have taken root over the last 77 years.
But soon, it could be headed for a serious makeover. Portland is selling the 5,300-square-foot building – the last one it owns at Fort McKinley – to Jonathan Miller of Hemlock House Development in North Yarmouth. Miller said he wants to reimagine it as housing.
Many of the other old fort buildings – barracks lining a parade ground – already are residences. About 100 people live year-round on the island in Casco Bay, and that number can swell to 300 in the summer. Miller declined to share specific details about the project until he has signed a purchase and sale agreement, which he said will hopefully be within the next few months.
But he said the goal is to use historic tax credits to redevelop the property into nine condos. The hospital, built in 1903, is part of the greater 111-acre Fort McKinl.