Barclay Friends, a Kendal Corp.-affiliated continuing care retirement community in West Chester, PA, broke ground this month on a new assisted living and memory care building to replace one that was destroyed in a five-alarm fire in November 2017 in which four residents died.
The 61,000-square-foot Preston building, which will replace the Woolman building, will be home to 60 residents and will include a secure, 20-unit memory support neighborhood, according to Barclay Friends. Other features will include an art room, library, fitness room and hair salon. Two gardens with walking paths also will be built on the grounds.
The building, named for 19th-century Quaker activist and physician Ann Preston, is expected to open in spring 2020.
The cause of the 2017 fire was ruled “undetermined” but did not appear to have been intentionally set, according to investigators, who believe that the building’s main sprinkler valve was off during the blaze.
The Preston building will have “state-of-the-art fire safety systems and construction materials,” Executive Director Linda Sterthous previously said.
