An acute need for affordable housing in a Maine ski town is leading a nonprofit to redevelop the abandoned home that was once a famous hypnotist’s clinic.
Bethel has seen unprecedented demand for housing since the pandemic. The town’s median home sale price increased by 25 percent last year, and Zillow pegs values at around $424,000. But the median household in Bethel can only comfortably finance a home up to $139,000, according to Zillow’s affordability calculator.
“For the majority of people working a number of local jobs, hospitality jobs, market housing is completely and totally out of reach,” said Amy Scott, a Bethel-based program manager with the Northern Forest Center. “People have to leave.”
Her nonprofit is redeveloping a historic Bethel home into eight apartments and one studio. The units are intended for those making between 80 and 120 percent of the area’s median income, Scott said. The $3 million project will be financed by a mix of impact investors, gifts and grants. Some interior demolition is under way, and the house is expected to be ready by late 2025.
For locals, the home being transformed is as notable as the project. It is the historic Gehring house on Broad Street. Built in 1896, the three-story building on the National Register of Historic Places was once the home and clinic of Dr. John George Gehring.
Gehring was a famous psychotherapist who was one of the first clinicians to use hypnosis in treating mental illnesses. He chose Bethel for his clinic because it was his wife’s hometown, and because he found the environment relaxing and intellectually stimulating, Will Chapman, the executive director of Bethel’s historical society, said.
From the 1890s to 1925, Gehring’s practice brought hundreds of prominent academics, scientists, politicians and socialites to Bethel, according to the historical society. They would stay in the house itself or in one of the surrounding inns built in the area for the purpose of hosting the doctor’s patients, Chapman said.
When Gehring retired, the house became his private residence. After he died in 1932, the house was sold. For decades, it was operated as a medical facility by the National Training Laboratories, a nonprofit psychology center. It has been vacant for roughly 15 years, Scott said.
“There are other historic houses in Bethel, but this one certainly has one of the more compelling histories behind it,” Chapman said.
The unique property is fulfilling a need in a four-season tourism destination near the Sunday River ski resort. While both demand for housing and prices have soared, so has construction. New homes have been put on the market as short-term rentals. The town considered regulating them last year, when there were more than 300 listings on Airbnb and similar websites.
Several months ago, Bethel hired a new superintendent for the wastewater treatment plant, but Scott said the appointee had to turn down the job because of a lack of housing.
Stories like that led the nonprofit to look at the Gehring House, which Scott called a point of pride for community members who have been saddened about its disrepair. To honor its rich history, the intricate woodwork and historic details of the Gehring House’s interior will be preserved through the renovation process, she said.
Fitting eight apartments into 7,500-square-feet of living space while honoring those elements is complex, but the Northern Forest Center’s architect is working with a historic consultant on the project, and is making use of the state’s historic tax credit rehabilitation program to get it done.
“We want to take something that is an asset to the community, that is deteriorating, and bring it back to life for the community, while meeting that need for middle-income housing,” Scott said.
