PROVIDENCE JOURNAL - OCTOBER 31, 2017

A new home base for 200 R.I. vets

State-of-the-art veterans home ready for residents to move in Wednesday

BY ALEX KUFFNER, JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

BRISTOL — “To the veterans of Rhode Island from a grateful nation.”

Those words are carved in stone at the entrance to the new Rhode Island Veterans Home, a state-of-the-art, 208-bed complex that will open to residents on Wednesday after 2 ½ years of construction.

Name plaques already identify who will occupy each room inside and, on Monday, construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the $121-million home that was financed equally by the federal government and the state.

The building was designed along the lines of a small town, architect Nathaniel Ginsburg, of Providence-based Brewster Thornton Group Architects, said during a tour with others that worked on the project.

“They came to us and said, ‘We want something that feels more residential,’” Ginsburg said of the veterans home administration.

The complex has a large common area at its center, holding space for a gym, a dining hall and chapel, a medical suite, an aquatherapy room and library.

Radiating out from the center are six residential wings or “neighborhoods,” as the architects and builders that worked on the project call them. Each neighborhood has individual rooms for 32 residents, as well as a dining space, nurse station and an outdoor garden.

“The idea was to give them more of a home-like environment,” veterans home administrator Rick Baccus said. “You want to try and make it as comfortable as it can be.”

The ground floor is devoted to residents who need nursing care while a smaller second floor houses dormitory space for 16 residents who don’t need such services.

Everything is connected by enclosed walkways so residents will have full access to everything the complex has to offer no matter the weather.

Small things set the veterans home apart from other nursing facilities. World War II maps and newspaper articles hang from walls and a bell from a battleship used in the Spanish-American War is mounted in a reception area.

Artwork was commissioned from Rhode Island artists and the altar in the home’s chapel was carved from a white oak that stood on the property by Bristol woodworker John Hugo whose wife is the facility’s nursing instructor. He did the work at no charge, said Baccus.

“He volunteered to do the whole thing himself,” Baccus said.

The Rhode Island Soldiers Home opened in 1891 at the same location on the east side of Metacom Avenue not far from Mount Hope Bay. It was replaced in 1955 by the current veterans home, a flat-roofed brick structure that was expanded in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The building has seen better days.

“It’s reached the end of its usable life,” said Ginsburg.

The new home was built by Gilbane Building Co., of Providence, and additional oversight was provided by Peregrine Group, of East Providence.

Once the residents move in, the old home will be torn down to make room for an exercise track for the residents.

A former water tower that dates to the original home stands in front of the new facility as a reminder of the long history of the site.

Baccus, a 32-year Army veteran, expressed pride in the project, which, he said, is being completed on time and on budget. He’s also grateful to state voters who approved bond issues to fund the state’s portion of the project not just once, but on two occasions.

“We were fortunate that the taxpayers said yes,” he said. “We’re very thankful to the citizens of Rhode Island.”