June 19, 2023
Why We Do What We Do:
Concerned citizens joined together in 1995 to form the Lexington Retirement Community Board to explore the possibilities of establishing a local retirement community for area citizens. After five years of study, the group elected to partner with The Kendal Corporation, a leading not-for-profit organization of retirement communities, and Kendal at Lexington was founded.
Today, Kendal receives support from a strong involved volunteer board made up of people from the broader community working together with residents and the administration.
The mission of Kendal at Lexington, a not-for-profit Life Plan Community grounded in Quaker values, is to provide opportunities for a diverse population of older adults from Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, Virginia and beyond, to live in a vibrant, caring community that promotes healthful and meaningful aging.
The community provides accommodations for approximately 200 independent living residents in 150 apartments and cottages, up to 20 assisted living residents in the Webster Assisted Living Center and rooms for as many as 60 individuals who require skilled nursing care in the five- star rated Borden Health Center.
Kendal’s Borden Health Center: Open to All Area Residents
In the early 2000s, the Stonewall Jackson Hospital board decided that they would no longer operate their aging, 50-bed Extended Care Facility.
With the desire to have the residents remain in the community, they turned to Kendal to see if a new nursing care center could be built as a part of the Life Care Community. With much celebration, most of the extended care residents and staff moved to the new facility in 2002. The Borden Center (now 60 beds) continues to serve all residents of the Rockbridge area in a newly renovated and expanded center.
Kendal – Looking Ahead:
We will keep working to make Kendal at Lexington the best possible community for active retirees, those seeking continuing life care, and members of the broader community in need of care at the Borden Health Center.