The Covid pandemic is not the first time that communities have had to deal with disease outbreaks.
An outbreak of typhoid in 1873 at a hotel in Bar Harbor caused 13 deaths and the event hit newspapers in the U.S. and overseas, threatening the burgeoning tourist business. Business men, the Rodicks and the Higgins, of Bar Harbor quickly responded by building a new water system to bring clean water from Eagle Lake into town.
In order to contain the threats of disease outbreaks, Bar Harbor constructed “isolation” or “pest” houses where infected people had to stay until they recovered or passed away.