United Methodist Village to close Sept. 10
The United Methodist Village (North Campus) in Lawrenceville is closing its doors this fall.
In a statement released by Administrator Ashli Wesley, the assisted living facility is formally notifying residents, families, staff, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the CMS Regional Office that it will cease operations as of Sept. 10.
Reasons for the closing are that UMV (North Campus) is no longer financially viable having suffered multiple years of significant fiscal losses and with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it had lost enough residents that the census is not enough to continue operations.
No new admissions are being taken after July 14.were being taken effective Tuesday July 14th.
The United Methodist Village began in 1908 as the Old Folks Home in Smithboro. In 1915, the building housing the facility burned and residents were moved to rented quarters at Greenville, and then Litchfield and Lebanon.
In 1918, a home in St. Francisville served as the new facility for eight years prior to the building of a three-story building located on a five acres donated by the Lawrenceville Chamber of Commerce.
Meeting in Special Session at Lawrenceville M.E. Church on May 25, 1926, the former Southern Illinois Annual Conference voted unanimously to borrow to empower the conference trustees to borrow $70,000 for “the use of the Old Folks’ Home at Lawrenceville and to secure the same by placing a bond issue” against the donated five acres. The special session also approved that the Old Folks Home trustees were empowered to sell off the St. Francisville property and property held in Clark County to be used for Old Folks Home in Lawrenceville.
The oldest building, the Holden Center, was closed in 2012. The south campus was closed in 2018 with the property auctioned off earlier this year. The north campus was the last remaining tract owned by the United Methodist Village.
