OPH acquired Mount Pleasant Retirement Village in Monroe.

 

In 1949, the United Presbyterian Church of North America recommended to the Second Synod that 10 acres of land along Britton Road in Monroe be purchased with the intention of building a retirement home there. Monroe was deemed the ideal location because it was close to medical care, the amenities of Middletown, and Mount Pleasant, the oldest church in the Synod.

Front of MP 1

            In 1951, Rev. William Paxton of College Corner made the first major gift to the building fund when he donated the proceeds from selling 107 acres of farmland. Construction began in 1952 with dozens of volunteers gathering in Mount Pleasant Church to coordinate their efforts. Over a two-week period, cots served as beds, church women served over 600 meals, and almost 4,000 hours of work were donated to building Paxton Hall and the first cottage.

The Middletown Journal reported on the construction process on August 7, 1952. “Scorching sun dimmed neither the enthusiasm nor the work of more than 20 volunteers who began construction this week on the new Mount Pleasant Home for the aged. You can’t tell the preachers from the laymen. All are garbed in work clothes and all are busy hammering away, sawing lumber and placing completed frames in position. Every single person on the construction job is a volunteer.”

Snook Sisters

The community’s first residents, moving into the volunteer-built cottage, were sisters Anne and Elizabeth Dinsmore. They moved to Mount Pleasant directly from Pittsburgh, without having seen their new home. The sisters described their first impression: “We were really located in a cornfield. There was nothing here except our cottage and the unfinished Paxton Hall. Paxton Hall was enclosed, but that was all.” Even after the first three cottages were built and occupied, the cows were still accustomed to wandering the area. The Dinsmores wrote, “The cows investigated Bernice’s breezeway, came and looked in our windows and tramped over the garden that we tried to have. They made themselves very much at home.” Eventually, the cows realized their new neighbors were here to stay and found other fields to roam.

            By 1958, Mount Pleasant had two resident halls, eight duplex apartments and ten cottages, housing a total of 60 residents. In May of that year, the United Presbyterian Church of North America merged with the United Presbyterian Church USA and Mount Pleasant joined the OPH family of communities. Dr. Ronald E. Boyer, who had served as campaign fund director, was installed as the home’s first administrator.

 

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