Svigals + Partners design
A rendering of Mary Wade's new Boardman Residence (shaded, at right).
A Fair Haven-anchoring nursing home won permission to knock down a 19th-century residential wing that has only one toilet per floor — and replace it with a new building that has a private bathroom for every bedroom.
The City Plan Commission granted that approval Wednesday night during its latest monthly online meeting.
The local land-use commissioners voted unanimously in support of a site plan and coastal site plan for the demolition and reconstruction of the south wing of Mary Wade Home’s Boardman Residence at 118 Clinton Ave.
The project will see the total number of bedrooms in the residential wing increased from 45 to 50. It will also see each bedroom have its own private toilet and bathing facility. Right now, each floor has a central toilet and bathing facility that are shared by 12 to 15 residents apiece.
“One word brought us to [this] decision, and that is Covid,” Mary Wade Home President and CEO David Hunter said when explaining why the century-plus-old nursing home decided to embark on such a major construction project.
The building that now houses the Boardman wing was built between 1880 and 1890, he said. While Mary Wade Home has renovated the building over the years with new plumbing and electrical and wallpaper, overall, “little has changed.”
“These rooms are small,” Hunter added. Most of this section of the complex was built for children in the 1890s.
Most importantly, the rooms are “not public health code-compliant.” There are no private bathrooms in the building, he said. “It was a real challenge for us to deal with infection control during the pandemic;” that continues to be a challenge with, say, the flu. (Click here to read about how Mary Wade Home was one of the hardest-hit local nursing homes during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic.)
Having a shared toilet per floor is “not sanitary” and “dangerous for spreading of virus,” added Svigals + Partners architect Bryan Moore. “That bathroom can’t be cleaned enough. Providing these [private bathrooms] helps substantially.”
Hunter said that he’s worked at Mary Wade Home for 44 years. Every decade or so, he said, a new plan pops up to update the Boardman wing. “The Covid pandemic really put this on the hot burner for us to address it.”
He concluded, “The combination of private bathrooms and central air will make this building a more healthy space for the senior population.”
This project will also see the demolition of a two-story house that currently serves as Mary Wade Home’s financial office.
A color-free look at the the new residence, which will align in height and floors with the existing structure.