Background on Loomis Communities
In 1883, a picnicking group of five female friends in Holyoke, MA slowly blossomed into an outing and social group of over fifty women. Wishing to do “something of permanent good for their city” and provide a “blessing to the homeless,” the so called Rain or Shine Club came up with the idea of gathering support and money for an institution to house and care for the old and infirm and to promote benevolent work in the community, Fifty-five women eventually signed the petition of incorporation for the Holyoke Home for Aged People, and the first meeting of the corporation was held October 6, 1902. Funding for the institution and an endowment was raised from throughout the community, including funds from a fair run by the group, and donations from the Holyoke Water Power Company, The Lyman Mills, William and Joseph Skinner, Frank Beebe, Mrs. Cyrus L. Frink, Charles E. Crevier, and J. P. Morgan.
The Holyoke Home, designed by the Chicopee architect James Clough for the purpose of housing the elderly, opened in March 1911 on two acres of land donated by philanthropist and widower William Stiles Loomis, whose wife had been in the Rain or Shine Club and had wishes of aiding the homeless and aged population of Holyoke. The Home provided long-term care of the elderly, famously for both women and men, and grew slowly for its first half century.
After changing its name to Loomis House in 1969, in honor of the benefactor, Loomis began slowly to expand, moving to its present location in 1981 upon construction of the first continuing care retirement community in the Commonwealth. In 1988, the Board acquired a 27-acre campus in South Hadley on which it established Loomis Village; in 1999, it became affiliated with the Applewood community in Amherst; and in 2009, it acquired Reeds Landing in Springfield. With over a century of changes and innovative work in residential and health care services, Loomis Communities continues to impact the nursing home industry today with its network of independent- and assisted-living apartments, units, and focus on creating a person-centered long-term care community.
