Agency Details:

Fairhill connects people to opportunities for lifelong learning, intergenerational relationships, and successful aging.

Description:
Fairhill Center – whose mission is connecting people to opportunities for lifelong learning, intergenerational relationships, and successful aging – is a unique, multi-tenant, non-profit campus focused on successful aging.

Fairhill delivers gap-filling, needed successful aging programs in a distinctive, one-of-a-kind community. Fairhill Center leases office, clinical and activity space to 25 organizations most of which have missions and objectives that complement successful aging.

Founded in 1987, Fairhill Center is a collaborative campus where the emphasis is on older adults, caregiving, intergenerational relationships, health promotion and lifelong learning. Each year, thousands of Greater Clevelanders use services such as the Computer Learning Center, primary healthcare, home-delivered meals, employment assistance, art therapy, an intergenerational community school, temporary housing, programs for grandparents raising grandchildren, and the education and workshops offered by a school for caregivers.

Over 25 campus organizations connect to more than 20,000 people annually, and at least 3,000 people reach out and connect directly to Fairhill’s successful aging services.

History:
The Fairhill Campus has been serving the Greater Cleveland community for over 75 years. In 1837 the Medical Board of Marine Hospitals designated Cleveland as the site of a hospital to benefit sick seamen, boatmen, and other navigators for the City’s central position in its relation to trade on lakes and rivers.

By 1916, with a capacity of just 85 beds, the hospital’s original location was deemed too small, and its location, with railroads and manufacturing plants nearby, seemed no longer suitable for hospital use. That year Congress took steps toward relocating the hospital to Fairhill. The sale of the old hospital more than paid for the $1.7 million cost of the new hospital, including equipment. Construction began in February 1928, and was completed in 1930, one year behind schedule.

On June 28, 1930, with a staff of 15 doctors, 42 nurses and 72 attendants, the US Marine Hospital opened its doors. At the close of World War II, the hospital was caring for an average of 267 resident patients daily. By 1953, that number had decreased significantly, and Congress voted to close the hospital. The Marine Hospital closed its doors on June 30, 1953.

After the facility’s closing, several organizations vied for the building, with the State of Ohio winning the bid. After remodeling, the hospital was reopened as the Fairhill Psychiatric Hospital in 1956. In 1973, the main building was again remodeled and a new two-story addition was added to the front of the original structure. In December 1983, Fairhill Psychiatric Hospital closed its doors.

Encouraged and facilitated by the Cleveland Foundation, campus activity began anew in 1989 through a joint venture of Benjamin Rose and University hospitals, to develop a collaborative campus.

Fairhill Partners emerged from the vision of a small group of organizations with complementary missions providing direct and ancillary services to older adults, their lay and professional caregivers, and others who serve them. Today, Fairhill Partners connects people and organizations with successful aging opportunities.

In addition to the services and programs offered directly by Fairhill Partners, twenty-five+ like-minded agencies have chosen to lease space and share the benefits of working together in an organizational community that encourages collaboration to make the best of available resources.

Contact people:

Elizabeth Cisek, Associate Director, Management Services, (email) Stephanie FallCreek, President/CEO, (email) Sue Grant, Director Of Marketing And Development, (email)

Address:

12200 Fairhill Road Cleveland, OH 44120 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.fairhillcenter.org

Directions:

From Interstate 71 or 77 connect to Interstate 90 in the downtown area. Follow Interstate 90 east to the Chester Avenue exit and proceed east on Chester to East 107th. Turn on Stokes Blvd., formerly E. 107th. Stokes Blvd. becomes. . . (more)

Last updated on June 3, 2009