‘Mansion on the Hill’

MOSES LAKE — The Mansion on the Hill, as employees and residents call it, marked its 40th birthday Oct. 15.

“This is a celebration not only for the families that have been served by assisted living, but also of those who have been able to keep the lights on and the kids fed because they were able to work here,” said Karisti Cox, living sales specialist at Brookdale Hearthstone.

Brookdale Hearthstone celebrated with a full-blown gala, including sandwiches, a chocolate fountain and a visit from some of the people who were there at the outset: assisted living pioneer Jerry Erwin and Hearthstone’s first administrator, Sara Milbrandt.

“I moved here in 1984,” Milbrandt said. “My mom lived in Vancouver (Washington) in one of Jerry’s buildings. One day I drove back from seeing her and I thought, ‘Hmm, I should get hold of that person, whoever he is.’ So the next time I went, I went to the front desk and I said, ‘Excuse me, can you tell me who your owner is?’ The girl said, ‘Is there a problem?’ I said, ‘No, not at all.” She gave me Jerry’s number.”

Erwin had just finished building an assisted living facility near Olympia, he said. 

“I’m not sure I’d ever been to Moses Lake,” Erwin said. “When I got Sara’s call, I said, ‘Where are you?’ She said, ‘Right in the middle of Washington.’ I gave her a list (of questions) and I thought, 'We’ll see if she calls back.' It wasn’t very long before I had all my questions answered, and I said (to myself), 'Well, I think at least I owe her a visit.' So I came over to Moses Lake and she was very convincing.” 

Erwin and Milbrandt began scouting for a place to build a facility, Milbrandt said. The location they selected belonged to Gladys Hull, who was 76 years old at the time.

“We met Gladys and it took a while, but we finally talked her into selling us this piece of property,” Milbrandt said. “The deal was that her son got to be the architect, and Gladys got to live here.”

Gladys’ son was Bob Hull, a Moses Lake native who owned an architectural firm on the west side, and the contractor was Erwin’s father-in-law, Emmett Koelsch. Construction was about halfway finished when it suddenly had to start all over.

“About the time we were tying the first and second floor sprinkler system together, we had a fire,” Milbrandt said. “The building burned to the ground.”

And quickly, too, according to a Columbia Basin Herald article from the time. The fire was reported by employees at Dairy Queen, just up the road, at about 9:30 p.m. and an hour later almost nothing remained, despite the efforts of 42 firefighters and apparatus from both Moses Lake Fire Department and Grant County Fire District 5. Nobody was hurt, according to the article; the construction crew had gone home three hours before.

The loss was estimated at $1 million, according to the Columbia Basin Herald article. Fortunately, the project was insured for $2 million.

“Thank goodness for the good insurance people,” Milbrandt said. “We got started right away and we rebuilt it.”

Ten months later, Emeritus at Hearthstone opened. At the time there were two separate wings, one for seniors to live independently in, with meals and maid service provided. The other side was what’s now called assisted living, where residents could avail themselves of a little help with things like dressing. 

The independent living side was already about 45% full when the facility opened, Milbrandt told the Columbia Basin Herald at the time, and filling rapidly.

“When we first started you couldn’t even get your foot in the door,” said Janet Gonzales, a longtime employee who worked at Hearthstone from 1987 until her retirement last August. “We had a waiting list of families trying to get their loved ones in.”

Opening Hearthstone paved the way for more senior facilities in Moses Lake, Milbrandt said.

“Six months later we thought maybe Moses Lake needed a skilled nursing home,” she said. “So we built Terrace Heights, which is Columbia Crest now. And after that I talked (Erwin) into buying Lake Ridge.”

Gladys Hull passed away at Hearthstone, on the land that had been hers, in 2001. Brookdale Senior Living purchased Emeritus at Hearthstone in 2014, renamed it Brookdale Hearthstone and converted it to all assisted living. Laurie Ahmann, the current administrator, started her career at Hearthstone in 1999.

“There have been so many wonderful memories in 40 years,” Ahmann said. “Hearthstone has taken wonderful, compassionate care of the small community of Moses Lake and the Columbia Basin.”

    Brookdale Hearthstone Administrator Laurie Ahmann, right, introduces Sara Milbrandt, left, and Jerry Erwin at Brookdale Hearthstone’s 40th anniversary gala Oct. 15. Erwin and Milbrandt opened Brookdale Hearthstone, then called Emeritus at Hearthstone, in October 1986.
  

    Tanys Ross, left, and Mayra Miramontes talk over hors d’oeuvres at Brookdale Hearthstone’s 40th anniversary gala Oct. 15.
  

    Visitors listen to stories of the founding of Brookdale Hearthstone at the facility’s 40th anniversary gala Oct. 15.