100-year old bequest comes of age

By Bob Bumcrot

After nearly a century, a long-awaited senior housing project is underway in Winsted.

On May 24, ground was broken for a twenty-unit senior complex near
the Winsted Health Center (WHC). The new facility is expected to open in the
spring of 2008.
Standing before four large excavators, two rock drills and a pile of
blasting mats, Northwest Senior Housing Corporation President Laurence Hannafin
described the project. “It began nearly 100 years ago with a bequest of
$15,000 to the former Litchfield County Hospital by Miss Susan M. B. Perry
for an ‘old peoples home’. For whatever reasons, none of this money or the
accumulated interest was used for this purpose until about four years ago.”
(Note: at 5% compounded yearly for 100 years, $15,000 would grow to nearly
$2 million.)
In 2003, members of the WHC Board of Trustees began developing plans for the facility,
using $186,000 from the Perry fund as seed money. They eventually obtained a
$3,108,700 grant from the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD). Architect Henry Schadler, who has extensive experience with
retirement facilities, was retained and has produced an attractive three story
design.
In addition to Hannafin, speakers at the groundbreaking included Julie Fagan, Director of the
Connecticut HUD Field Office; Romuolo Samaniego, Executive Director of
co-sponsor Broad-Park Development Corporation; and Anita Holmes, President of the
Winsted Health Center. The event was also attended by other members of the board of the
Northwest Senior Housing Corporation and representatives of Gar-San, the general
contractor.

Photo by Bob Bumcrot: Members of the Winsted Health Center’s Board of Directors break ground for a new senior housing development.