History of Northern Light Mayo Hospital
Northern Light Mayo Hospital gets its name from and owes its existence to Col. Edward J. Mayo. The hospital began with Colonel Edward Mayo’s generous gift of his home and $10,000. Mayo Hospital was literally built on a foundation of giving and a love for the communities and peoples of the Maine Highlands.
Born in 1864 in Foxcroft, now Dover-Foxcroft, Col. Mayo was a wealthy businessman and philanthropist whose family owned and operated the Mayo & Son Woolen Mill for three generations. Col. Mayo owned the mill founded by his grandfather and was active in his community as a bank trustee, railroad officer, Foxcroft Academy trustee and Piscataquis Valley Fair Association president. He served in the state House of Representatives in 1900-01.
The Colonel was a benefactor of the Congregational Church, Foxcroft Academy, the fair association and the Good Will Farm in Hinckley, but he is best remembered for the gift that bears his name to this day.
When Col. Mayo died in 1935, he willed his splendid home on West Main to the town of Dover-Foxcroft for use as a hospital. He bequeathed $10,000 for free beds, and free surgical and medical treatment for needy patients in town, and also designated one-fourth of his estate for the support and maintenance of the hospital. The town accepted the gift — particularly generous in the midst of the Great Depression — and established Mayo Memorial Hospital on the site of the Mayo family homestead, converting the home (now known as the Old Mayo Building) to a hospital in 1936. That year Mrs. Gertrude Mayo, Col. Mayo’s widow, left another $10,000 to the hospital in her will.
In 1949, a maternity wing, later used as the hospital’s business office, was added to the hospital after a $30,000 fund-raising campaign led by the Miosac Club of Dover-Foxcroft and the Junior Women’s Club of Guilford. The Miosac women also spearheaded the drive for money to add an elevator, installed in 1956.
Discussions on consolidating small hospitals in Dover-Foxcroft, Dexter, and Milo into a regional hospital gained momentum in 1972. A site committee chose next door to Mayo Memorial Hospital to build the new hospital. Robert McReavy, a former school superintendent in the Guilford area, was hired as the first administrator in 1974 and served until 1992.
The ground was broken for construction of a 52-bed acute care hospital in 1976. The hospital opened to patients on April 9, 1978, with a staff of 110.
A medical office building was constructed in 1989 on the east side of the old Mayo building.
In 2000, the hospital constructed a new ambulance garage for its Emergency Medical Service on Dwelley Avenue and received state Certificate of Need approval to begin a major expansion/renovation project on the main hospital building.
In 2020, Mayo Regional Hospital officially become the tenth hospital of Northern Light Health and changed its name to Northern Light Mayo Hospital.