We have exciting news here at Episcopal Retirement Services: This fall, we completed a $4.25 million capital campaign in support of the $20 million renovation of the Marjorie P. Lee retirement community in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

We achieved this monumental goal thanks to the generosity of 90 individual donors, foundations and faith-based supporters. The completion of the capital campaign will ensure that ERS completes the $20 million renovation in its entirety. The balance of capital needed to finance the renovation came from a 2017 bond issuance that was privately placed at BMO Harris Bank in addition to ERS cash.

MPL’s long-term success will not only improve the lives of its residents for years to come but also strengthen ERS overall. MPL’s success fuels success in our other premier continuing care retirement communities, including Deupree House and Cottages in East Hyde Park and Episcopal Church Home in Louisville.

A stronger ERS also allows us to extend our mission deeper into the community through Affordable Living for low-income seniors and important outreach services, such as Deupree Meals On Wheels and Parish Health Ministry.

Highlights of the Marjorie P. Lee renovation project include:

• Two new residential living with memory support households for people with early to mid-stage Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Kirby House and Morris House, were among the first areas to open, thanks to a gift from Deupree House resident Jack Kirby in memory of his late wife, Alberta. Kirby House has opened on the fourth floor and Morris House was relocated from the first to the fifth floor. 

• Renovations will soon begin to establish a third memory care household, Luther House, on the fourth floor, thanks to a grant from the H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank and Narley L. Haley, Co-Trustees. The household was named after Frances Luther, a former MPL resident. Inside Luther House, a specially-designed activity room will open in memory of Jean Bond Seyboldt, a 25-year resident of MPL. Seyboldt’s daughter, current Deupree House resident Gay Bain, made the gift with her husband St. John.

• The Meyer Family Therapy Center has more than doubled in size to dramatically improve services to our rehab patients. The expansion was thanks to a collective gift through a realized estate gift from former Deupree House resident Dan Meyer, his daughter Jennifer Meyer Angus, sisters Corky Meyer Ladd and Marian Meyer Allen and longtime friends Mike and Digi Schueler.

• The Tom Craig Lobby has been redecorated to better welcome residents, families, and visitors. Formerly known as the Shaw Lobby, the lobby has been dedicated in memory of former resident Tom Craig through a gift from his stepson and daughter-in-law Greg and Amy Power.

• Our new state-of-the-art accommodations for short-term rehab were approved for licensure, and we have successfully relocated all short-term rehab patients from the former Lee Gardens. 

• The Event Center has been renamed the Krug Event Center in honor of longtime supporters Mike and Kathy Krug. Mike is a former board chairman who has served in many leadership capacities, including the MPL capital campaign. Kathy has volunteered for Deupree Meals On Wheels for many years. They both have had loved ones who have lived at MPL throughout the years.

• The Shaw Cafe will be re-dedicated as the Adams Cafe in honor of a gift from Richard and Virginia Lee Adams, both of whom have been champions of MPL for decades. The cafe overlooks the Adair Gardens, which was previously named in memory of Lee’s parents, Robert and Virginia Adair, through a gift from their estate.

• The next phase of the renovation will focus on two separate skilled care centers, Amstein House and Berghamer House. Amstein House will be renovated to become  the skilled care center for seniors requiring memory support. A second long-term skilled care center will replace Lee Gardens to provide nursing care for residents with physical, but not cognitive, support needs. The new center will be named Berghamer House in memory of former MPL resident Ellen Berghamer. The gift was made through a trust that has been established at Fifth Third Bank. During her lifetime, Ellen made a generous donation to MPL to name the Archea Dining Room in memory of her parents, who also lived at MPL. The dining room was redecorated as part of the renovation.

In addition to our donors, who provided critically needed funding for this project, we’d like to thank our patient residents, who lived with the construction day in and day out; our staff, who accommodated the needs of our residents throughout the construction; and our construction partner, Ridge Stone Builders, who approached their work with our residents’ best interests at heart.

Because of our donors, we will continue to fulfill our mission of serving older adults in a person-centered, innovative and spiritually-based way as a leader in senior care. We thank them for making a difference in the thousands of lives that will be touched as a result of this renovation.