Left to proper, Illinois Presbyterian Residence Govt Director Maryann Walker, Board President Marci Irvine, and Advertising and Growth Coordinator Gracie Tierney present treasured photographs of the Palmer Sanatorium and its nurses.
Set again off the nook of Chatham Highway and Lawrence Avenue on practically 30 acres of grassy garden and woods, Illinois Presbyterian Residence supplies “consolation in a neighborhood” for space seniors. The workers and volunteers are excitedly starting preparations for the house’s seventieth anniversary. However the historic property started its service life effectively earlier than 1954 when Presbyterian pastor, the Reverend Richard Paul Graebel, acquired the previous tuberculosis remedy advanced on the location of the current senior residences.
From farmhouse to TB pavilion
In 1913, native doctor and public well being advocate Dr. George T. Palmer transformed an outdated farmhouse to serve tuberculosis sufferers. The Springfield Open Air Colony, later referred to as The Palmer Sanatorium, offered mattress relaxation, recent air and care within the nation away from city. Nurses employed stringent sanitation and security requirements for the continued tuberculosis epidemic and specialised in remedy for kids.
The sanatorium’s deadline varies based on supply paperwork. Some say it operated till the Nineteen Forties when Rutgers College scientists found the primary efficient TB antibiotic, and others say it was closed a decade later. In both case, it was vacant when Mrs. Palmer supplied the property on the market in 1953.
The following incarnation
In 1954 Graebel, pastor of Springfield’s First Presbyterian Church, and a small group toured the constructing which was described as “nearly ghostly, with dusty stacks of mattress linen, even a dental workplace,” wrote Edyth Anderson for the Sangamon County Historic Society’s “Historico.”
Wanting previous the wanted renovations, Graebel envisioned a brand new house for his mom and a brand new mission for the constructing on the prime of the hill. He bought the property for $140,000 and, based on sangamoncountyhistory.org, opened the doorways to the primary residents of the Illinois Presbyterian Residence on March 5, 1956.
Since then, the house has expanded and rebranded, says Govt Director Maryann Walker. “We have developed over time and altered to swimsuit what is going on on on the planet.”
Board President Marci Irvine understands {the marketplace} for senior care. “Folks need to keep of their houses, and [services such as] visiting nurses, house well being care, and grants to assist individuals age in place are making that doable.” So, she says, “we’re being open. We’re trying 5 to 10 years forward.”
To respect the persevering with mission of assistive dwelling whereas responding to the rising want for security and safety with independence, the board started a constructing marketing campaign within the Sixties that continues right now. The property now contains the unique constructing of personal rooms and customary areas in addition to the 16 new Truthful Hills impartial dwelling cottages and the brand new Truthful Hills tower flats.
Comfortably furnished and seasonally embellished, “The Entrance Porch,” provides residents and company a homey place to greet and meet.
Truthful Hills? Sure, one of many yard indicators says Truthful Hills, the identify a earlier director established at one time, but it surely has at all times been the Illinois Presbyterian Residence to generations of residents and their households. Gracie Tierney, the director of selling and improvement, typically hears younger guests say with affection, “My aunt, or my grandmother, used to stay right here on the Illinois Presbyterian Residence.” And, whereas the residents are usually not essentially Presbyterian, and it’s largely funded by neighborhood donations, it is nonetheless supported by the Illinois Presbyterian Church.
Simply because it started assembly a particular well being want, Illinois Presbyterian Residence is continuous to offer a novel senior housing answer. As Walker says, “All well being care providers are altering. Nursing houses are functioning virtually as extensions of the hospitals,” whereas
The Illinois Presbyterian Residence provides each assistive and impartial dwelling. It is a small, not-for-profit family-style setting, with month-to-month lease, the place residents know one another and their pets, and the place the workers and volunteers foster relationships at a time when, as Tierney says, “loneliness ages individuals quicker than perhaps they understand.”
The residence provides residents greater than shelter and sustenance. “We offer 4 providers that enhance individuals’s lives,” based on Irvine — nutritious meals shared collectively, together with a midday meal choice for impartial dwelling residents, socialization, non secular help and bodily train within the type of protected, lengthy walks. Significantly, lengthy. Rooms on the ends of the halls within the constructing’s wings are a hike away from the eating room, however these walks are universally thought-about an elixir of life. One resident just lately declined to take a better room, saying, “Honey, how do you suppose I lived to be 100 years outdated?”
Wanting again with satisfaction and forward with confidence, Illinois Presbyterian Residence seems to be ahead to welcoming residents for a few years to come back.
And there is extra to find than the eating room, such because the kitchenettes and dwelling rooms in every wing, a Wii video games playroom, exercise room and courses, an train room with gear, self-service laundry room for individuals who select that choice, and two hallways that includes a mixture museum/lending library of prints and work accessible for viewing and loans.
Residents may stroll the pathways open air the place they are going to doubtless see the deer and different wildlife who additionally make the property their protected haven.
Tierney seems to be again with satisfaction and forward with confidence. “We’re celebrating how far we have come and we’re planning for the longer term as we develop into the following 70 years and past.
Our mission is to be a protected and inexpensive neighborhood not simply the place seniors are ‘staying,’ however the place they name ‘house.'”
For extra data, to schedule a tour, or make a donation, name (217) 546-5622, or go to www.iphcommunities.org.
DiAnne Crown is a frequent contributor to Illinois Instances and REGEN.
