The WELSH HOME, founded in 1911 and opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1919, houses elderly natives of Wales, people of Welsh descent, and their spouses. Mary Jane Hasenpflug and other members of the Women's Welsh Club of Cleveland established the home. The club was the founding organization of the national Women's Welsh Clubs of America, which operates the facility. The first Welsh Home, on Mayfield Rd. in SOUTH EUCLID, accommodated 15 senior citizens. In 1921 the Women's Welsh Clubs bought 71/2 acres of wooded land at 22199 Center Ridge Rd. in ROCKY RIVER and by 1924 had established the home there. Twenty-nine elderly men and women lived at the home in 1929; its capacity remained constant until replaced in 1953 with a new $250,000 structure, able to house about 34 residents. The home's annual budget was $20,000 that year, and the endowment fund, started in 1925, had grown to $235,000. The home was enlarged in 1985.
See also BRITISH IMMIGRATION; OLD AGE/NURSING HOMES.