A new nonprofit plans to develop a community for seniors at Chapman Farm in Damariscotta.
The community would consist of about a dozen small homes and four cottages for short-term use, as well as an eight-room inn and an art center, café, farm, and tea room.
Inn Along the Way Inc. has an option in place to purchase the property from the grandchildren of the late David Chapman. The current owners and their children represent the eighth and ninth generations of the family to spend time on the farm.
Many locals know the property as the former home of the popular Miles Memorial Hospital League rummage sale. The 46-acre property with its 1827 farmhouse and barn is at 741 Main St., near the intersection of Business Route 1 and Route 1.
Inn Along the Way has until Dec. 2 to raise the $500,000 purchase price for the property, according to the leadership of the nonprofit. A $200,000 gift has brought the campaign almost halfway to its goal.
“We feel very confident,” Inn Along the Way President Sherry Flint said Friday, April 3. “If you’re doing the right things for the right reasons, it’s hard to stop you.”
After the purchase, the organization estimates it would need another $5.7 million to complete the project.
“That’s another bit of fundraising,” Flint said, but the figure does not faze the project’s leaders.
“There is no doubt that this is going to work,” Vice President Suzanne Hallett said.
“The need is too great,” Flint said.
Flint believes the facility could open in four years and parts – like the café – might open sooner. The time frame could change if donations come in more quickly. “We hope to begin opening doors as soon as we can,” she said.
“After the initial expense of the land and improvements, it is our intent to become more financially self-sustaining and less dependent on major fundraising,” Flint said in a statement on the nonprofit’s website.
Inn Along the Way plans to charge rent on a sliding scale for its accessible, environmentally friendly homes.
“This is for everybody – all economic strata and all social strata and all racial strata,” Hallett said. “To me, that’s one of the most appealing and important parts of this whole thing.”
The housing will bring in revenue, as will the inn, café, and tea room. The organization hopes to use some portion of this income to offer free stays in its “hospitality cottages.”
The hospitality cottages would serve a variety of purposes. An elderly person near the end of his or her life could stay in a cottage for a few days when a caregiver – like a husband, wife, or child – needs to take a break or travel out of town.
A couple in a caregiver situation could stay in a hospitality cottage for a brief vacation. Neighborhood residents and volunteers could stay with the elderly individual while the caregiver goes on a hike or outing.
“There isn’t a lot being done for caregivers right now,” Flint said. “We want to give caregivers a respite. That’s the purpose of those hospitality cottages.”
The inn, café, and other facilities will do more than bring in revenue to support the hospitality cottages. They will also contribute to an active, lively atmosphere in the neighborhood.
“We want a lot of wider community involvement – moving, coming, going, interacting,” Hallett said.
Inn Along the Way would be the first senior community of its kind, according to Flint and Hallett. Flint cites a Texas community for adults with disabilities as an inspiration.
“There are communities around the country that have been seeds of this, but we’ve not yet found an exact model, and the time is well past,” Flint said.
Flint, of Bristol, and Hallett, of Nobleboro, are hospice volunteers with Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice. This work and their experiences with their own family and friends influenced their desire to create Inn Along the Way.
Both have watched people die in circumstances “we would never want to be in at that stage,” Hallett said.
“I think we can do better by one another,” Flint said.
Flint and Hallett’s experiences have led them to reflect on their own wishes for end-of-life care and created “a big impetus to create an environment that is aesthetically pleasing and emotionally supportive,” Hallett said.
“I don’t want to be in assisted living, but I could live in an interdependent community,” Flint said.
The concept of interdependent living is central to the Inn Along the Way model. Anyone who chooses to live in the Inn Along the Way community is “responsible to give back in any capacity they are able,” Flint said.
A resident might tend a community garden, walk a dog for a less mobile resident, or simply sit and talk with a neighbor.
Couples often provide this support for one another as they age. “That’s what we’re going to do, but just on a little larger scale,” Flint said. “We’re just kind of the old neighborhood concept.”
Inn Along the Way would rely heavily on volunteers – both residents and non-residents. Employees would include a director, office staff, a cook, and cafe staff.
The organization will not employ medical staff, although residents could bring in help from outside agencies.
Flint expects to present the project to the Damariscotta Planning Board soon.
For more information, call Sherry Flint at 677-3123 or 751-6261, like Inn Along the Way on Facebook, or visit http://innalongtheway.com.
