View the New Centennial Wall Display
It began with the realization that a widow might have no one to continue working the farm after her husband died, and not all churches would be in a position to pitch in and provide support.
The crowd on hand for the dedication of The Brethren's Home
posed for this photo on July 29, 1908.
From that came The Brethren’s Home for “old folks,” founded in 1908 in a large farmhouse in Huntsdale, near Carlisle. Forty-four years later, following a fire at the original site, “the home” reopened in the old Cross Keys Hotel, just east of New Oxford. Within a decade it also had become what would now be considered a nursing home.
This photo shows the nursing staff in the 1950s, the period during which Cross Keys was transitioning from an "old folks home" to one specializing in nursing care.
By the late 1970s the “retirement community” concept was catching on, and the first cottages appeared, to be followed in the next decade by assisted living . personal care services.
Today Cross Keys Village – The Brethren Home Community hosts, serves and cares for 900 women and men and has 600 employees (“team members”). Its commitment to those who cannot help themselves continues with millions of dollars each year spent on those who are unable to pay their own way.
The facilities and services are top-notch and constantly being improved. The new Harmony Ridge West Apartments and Harvey S. Kline Wellness Center are rising in the middle of campus, as major renovations are completed in the Alzheimer’s/dementia neighborhood of the Health Care Center and begun in Assisted Living / Personal Care.
“A Century of Christian Caring” has been adopted as a centennial theme; our founders would understand.
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