History
In
1896, the Salem Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of
Friends formed a thirty-two member Friends Boarding Home Committee
to explore a way to meet the needs of elderly people living within
the Salem Quarter, both Quakers and friends of Quakers.
By September
1897, a home for the infirmed and aged was incorporated as a
non-profit organization under the direct care of the Salem Quarterly
Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Friends Boarding Home
officially opening its doors on November 15, 1897 with four
boarders, two caretakers and a matron. The boarders paid only $3 a
week.
Over the
years, Friends Boarding Home expanded several times. In 1905, a
brick house in the center of Woodstown was purchased due to the need
for greater space. Expansion was necessary again in 1911. The
construction included the addition of an operating room and a
kitchen.
New state
and federal codes governing long-term care facilities made Friends
Boarding Home obsolete in the early 1970s. Rather than abandon their
program for the aging, Salem Quarterly Meeting raised the funds to
build a new complex. Friends Home at Woodstown opened at its present
location in 1976 with sixty residential beds and forty-two nursing
beds. Eighteen additional nursing beds were added in 1979.
The Board of
Managers, in the mid-1980s, established Woods Court. These eight
one-bedroom apartments operate under a separate corporation with
their own Board of Managers. An independent living option, Woods
Court enjoys autonomy from Friends Home while their residents are
welcome to join the various activities offered at Friends Home.
To ensure the mission and viability
of Friends Home, the Board of Managers initiated a long-range,
strategic planning process in 1990. The Village project was
developed to establish Friends Home as a Continuing Care Retirement
Community (CCRC). As Friends Village continues to expand into the
future, the individual needs of each resident we serve will be of
first importance as they have been since our beginning.
