William Enston Home, Charleston, SC, 1889Early planned community for the elderly. National Park Service Register of Historic Places Jack Boucher, courtesy of HABS
(See 1889: William Enston Home, Charleston, SC.)
There were some surprisingly modern concepts used during this period by private and non-profit developers, including some early planned communities and retirement campuses.
One of the earliest planned "retirement communities" was the William Enston Home in Charleston, SC, constructed in 1889. It is described by the National Park Service Register of Historic Places as follows:
"The home is comprised of 24 residential cottages; Memorial Hall, a community building; an infirmary; an engine house; a water tower and an entrance gate. Designed in 1889, the water tower served as the centerpiece of a model waterworks system, and the spacious, landscaped grounds exemplified suburban planning ideals of the 19th century...Enston specified that the complex be comprised of neat and convenient two-story brick cottages with at least eight acres of land. He also stipulated that potential residents be the old and sick, from 45 to 75 years old, of 'good honest character,' and not suffering from 'lunacy'." (National Park Service)
Sailor's Snug Harbor was built in 1833 on Staten Island New York as a 130-acre campus for "old and worn out seamen", funded by a generous bequest from Robert Randall, who left the bulk of his fortune to endow "...an Asylum, or Marine Hospital, to be called "Sailor's Snug Harbor" for the purpose of maintaining and supporting aged, decrepit, and worn-out sailors." Randall had originally made a bequest of land in Manhattan, but by the time litigation surrounding the will was settled, New York City had grown substantially and the Trustees of Snug Harbor decided that Randall's farmland was too valuable a piece of real estate to be used for a seamen's retreat, so they sold it and used the proceeds to purchase the 130-acre Isaac Housman farm in what was then a rural area of Staten Island. Eventually, the site included dormitories, gardens, a greenhouse, dining rooms, workrooms, barns, a dairy, a hospital, a sanitarium, a bakery, a laundry, a snack bar, a library, a vaudeville house, a church and a chapel.
Plan of the Sailors Snug Harbor campus.(See 1873: Sailor's Snug Harbor, Staten Island, NY.)
Sailor's Snug Harbor was continuously in operation until the late 1960's, creating an interesting opportunity to see life in an old age home across several eras. That long span of existence and its location near a large city meant it was well-documented. Author Theodore Dreiser, lived nearby and got to know the the inmates of the place well. In his 1899 book, The Color of the Great City, he concluded that institutionalization was not a good solution for their old age, because "...this is a great institution and indeed a splendid benefaction, but it insists upon what is the bane and destruction of heart and mind: conformity to routine, a monotonous system which wears as the drifting of water." (Snug Harbor Cultural Center) More insight was provided in an article in Harpers Magazine which describes life in Sailor's Snug Harbor in 1873, and in another article from the depression-era Federal Writer's Project which describes life in Sailor's Snug Harbor in 1938. (Harpers Magazine, 1873) (Federal Writer's Project, 1938)
Some Elderly Move Into Private Homes
A small number of the non-indigent frail elderly people lived in early "proprietary", privately-owned facilities called "rest houses," "convalescent homes," or "medical boardinghouses", generally just rented rooms in a family home.
Berkshire Home for Aged Women, Pittsfield, MA, 1888Built in 1888 as a home for aged women and still in operation in 2002. National Park Service Register of Historic Places Photo courtesy of Robert Boland.
(See 1888: Berkshire Home for Aged Women, Pittsfield, MA.)
Charles Hull Home, Chicago, ILBuilt as private home in 1856. Used by Little Sisters of the Poor as a home for the aged sometime between 1868 and 1889. Gifted to Jane Addams in 1889 to create Hull House. Photo from: City of Chicago: Chicago Landmarks