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Blackburn Home marks anniversary
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By Rick Rouan
When Sylvester Fitch Blackburn died in 1915, he left an endowment of more than $20,000 to establish the Blackburn Home for Aged People in Poland.
It would be tough for one person to survive on $20,000 today, but 75 years later, that endowment still helps support a home for up to 16 people.
Blackburn was a Poland native who cared for his mother without the help of siblings, said Joanne Underwood, the home’s director. When Blackburn, a farmer, became elderly himself, he did not have a wife or children to take care of him, so he left his estate to establish a “personal care” home, she said.
“He thought it was such a shame that there was no place for people to go,” Underwood said.
Blackburn’s siblings fought his will in court and earned some inheritance, but in 1934 the suit was settled, and the board of trustees for the home had it built, Underwood said.
Now the Blackburn Home for Aged People is celebrating 75 years on the corner of Water and Botsford streets with an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.
The home sits on 3.5 acres and has 13 women living there now, though it can house up to 16 men and women in suites that include full bedrooms and bathrooms.
“The economy may be playing in part of it, and not enough people know about us,” Underwood said. “We’re trying to get known again.”
Underwood said the home has never had to worry about advertising because of its reputation spread through word of mouth, and that some people refer to it as “Poland’s best-kept secret.”
Residents pay for rooms based on a sliding scale for the size of the suite, Underwood said. Prices range from $1,760 to $2,005 per month.
In her 11 years as director of the home, Underwood said the staff has developed a reputation for being helpful and dedicated.
“We’re known as having a really loving staff,” she said.
That staff provides room and board, activities, help with bathing if necessary and transportation to and from doctor’s appointments for its residents, though the home has no nurse on staff, Underwood said.
Ultimately, the people who live in the Blackburn Home lean on one another.
“They worry about each other. They pray for each other,” she said.
The average age of a resident at the home is between 86 and 87, up from 83 when Underwood took over as director, she said.
On any given day, it’s not uncommon to find a group of women playing “Kings in a Corner” or sitting in a renovated sun room, but the home has a full-time activities director on staff who organizes musical acts and parties for residents, Underwood said.
The home features common areas for those kinds of events complete with a 52-inch television that a former resident’s children donated and antique furniture from Blackburn’s estate.
Residents even adopted a pet — a cockatiel named Frankie Sinatra — who chirps from his caged perch in the living room.
In the past 10 years, the home has undergone several renovations, including a refurbished sun room, new windows and the addition of a security system.
But even as the home changes with age, Underwood said Blackburn’s vision is carried out.
“I think Sylvester would be very happy,” she said.
rrouan@vindy.com