This photo of the Lutheran Home for the Aged was taken following the dedication ceremonies on June 15, 1930. This 1930 photo features the dedication of the Home for the Aged.

This 1930 photo features the first guests of the Home for the Aged.

Miss Amanda Berg, Mrs. Sophia Soderling, Mrs. Ida Herman, John E. Carlson, Martin Nelson, and Josephine Eleanora Lindquist were the first guests of the Lutheran Home for the Aged. The home's capacity was 19 and filled up quickly under the direction of Mrs. Judith Erickson, the first matron. The road to building the Home had begun in 1924 with a $500 bequest for that purpose.

First Lutheran Church, Jamestown, incorporated a Lutheran Home for the Aged to receive the seed money, then began visioning with other local Lutheran churches and the New York Conference of the Augustana Synod to make the Home a reality. In 1927 they decided the home should be built adjacent to the Gustavus Adolphus Orphanage, on land already owned by the Conference and pledged to raise $30,000 for the project. During the spring of 1929, using the slogan "Onward Christian Soldiers," $34,770.00 was raised locally and on November 24th that year, they laid the cornerstone. The Home’s dedication in 1930 was a culmination of the vision of church men and women who recognized an emerging need and met it in love.

This 1930 photo features the first male residents of the Home for the Aged.

This 1930 photo features the first women residents of the Home for the Aged. The Matron, Mrs. Judith Erickson, is third from the left in the second row.

This 1930 arial photo shows the Orphanage and the Home for the Aged.

Today’s Lutheran Retirement Home features 254 skilled nursing beds in a facility developed from a history of expansions and additions to the original 1930 Home. The facility’s size and state-of-the-art care has changed vastly from the home opened to 19 well-aging residents. But the challenge to recognize and meet the emerging needs of the elderly in each new generation remains just as central to our ministry today as it did to that anonymous donor of $500 in 1924.