Historical Overview

1868
The Lutheran Church purchases the Loysville Academy and soldiers’ orphans home in Perry County, Pa., operated by the Tressler family. Son David Loy Tressler donates his share of proceeds from the sale of surrounding land provided the institution be known as the Tressler Orphans Home. The institution is to exist “to provide a home for poor orphan children of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and such other poor children as the Board will find funds to justify; to have their temporal wants supplied; to educate them physically, intellectually, morally, and religiously; and to extend over them a wholesome guardianship.”

The Rev. Phillip Willard, who arranged for the purchase of the academy, is named the first superintendent at the age of 59. He serves for three years, being replaced in 1889 by Major J.G. Bobb, acting superintendent.

1872
A two-story addition is made to the main Tressler Orphans Home building; additional land is added three years later and in 1884, a three-story addition is made to the main building. Additional improvements are made over the next few years.

1890
The famous Tressler Orphans Home Boys Band, which toured Pennsylvania and surrounding states, is formed in the early years of this decade.

1892
Charles Widle is named superintendent of the Tressler Orphans Home, a role he will hold through 1923. His tenure is marked by extensive growth. By 1905, even with the orphans of soldiers transferred to other institutions per state mandate, the number of children at the home is 200. New buildings are added, including a printery and industrial school.

1896
A charter is granted by the Berks County Court creating “The Lutheran Orphans Home” to care for fatherless and/or motherless children, where the “homeless and the destitute may be clothed and fed, and enjoy the advantages of a Christian training.” A 105-acre farm southeast of the borough of Topton is purchased, and the Rev. Uriah P. Heilman is named first superintendent of the home.

1897
Ground for the Topton Orphans Home main building is broken, and the first children, Sallie and Clair Carl, who lost both parents to illness, are cared for.

1899
The main orphanage building on the Topton campus is dedicated.

1900
The Rev. Heilman, who was responsible for the Topton home’s early growth, dies of pneumonia. The first “donation day”-later Anniversary Day-is held on the Topton campus, on Aug. 16.

The Tressler Alumni Association meets for the first time.

A dying child’s donated pennies provide the impetus for a campaign that results in construction of the Children’s Memorial Chapel at the Tressler home.

1901
The Rev. Dr. John H. Raker, later co-founded of The Good Shepherd Home in Allentown, Pa., is named superintendent of the Topton home; he serves in this role until 1907.

1909
The Rev. J. O. Henry is named superintendent of the Topton home. He serves until 1945; his wife and matron of the home, Mrs. Ida Henry, later created the Christmas Putz still displayed on the Topton campus.

1911
Multiple building additions are made to the Topton campus, including the Annie L. Lowry Memorial Infirmary, dormitory wings to the main building, and a chapel. Other buildings are added over the next several decades, including a school and residence cottages. At both the Tressler and Topton homes, some residence halls are named for regional Lutheran conferences or synods, which helped to fund their construction.

1913
The Lutheran Inner Mission of Baltimore & Vicinity is organized, with an informational meeting held at the Baltimore Lutheran Motherhouse. The Rev. Frederick W. Meyer is named its first superintendent the following year.

1917
A girls orchestra is formed at the Tressler Orphans Home.

The Lutheran Inner Mission of Baltimore opens a Lutheran Hospice. At that time, hospice did not refer to the terminally ill; rather, the building served as a “Christian home for non-resident girls coming to Baltimore to work or attend educational institutions.” The following year, Sister Zora Heckart is named housemother, a role she holds until 1958.

1920
The Tressler Orphans Home Press-later called the Tresslertown Press-is fully operational. For years, it supplies envelopes to Lutheran congregations across the country. It continues to operate as a private business after the Tressler home closes in 1962.

1923
The Annie L. Lowry Memorial Hospital opens on the Tressler campus, 12 years after a similarly named building at Topton.

Sister Christine Jaborg, appointed a Lutheran Inner Mission of Baltimore visitor in 1919, offers a summer camp to children at a “Fresh Air Farm” near Westminster, Md. In 1933, a 144-acre property near Annapolis Junction is given to the Inner Mission Society as a site for the Summer Home Program. It is given the name “Jolly Acres.”

1924
The Rev. George R. Heim is appointed superintendent of the Tressler Orphans Home; the population of children at this point is more than 300.

1926
The Charles A. Widle Trade School is dedicated at the Tressler home. The school encompasses wood-working, drafting, bricklaying, cement work, plastering, and plumbing and heating.

1930
The population of the Topton home reaches 165. In this decade, the home’s grounds swell to 317 acres.

1934
A large swimming pool is constructed at the Topton home.

1936
The number of children at the Tressler home hits a high of 350; by 1944, it declines to 183, indicative of the changes occurring as society moved gradually away from orphanages.

1940
The orphanage at Topton is renamed “The Lutheran Home at Topton, Pennsylvania.” Services to older persons begin on the Topton campus, when the organization’s trustees authorize the use of the Annie Lowry building to house 10 “aged guests.” Interestingly, some funds for the start of services to older persons came from money raised by Dr. Raker in 1907, for a proposed “old folks’ home” at Topton.

Luther D. Grossman is appointed superintendent of the Tressler home. He eventually coins the term “Tresslertown” for the campus and makes significant upgrades to the campus to make it less institutional. Four years later, he writes that the home must begin to investigate new ways to serve children, including foster care and adoptive placements. A student government is inaugurated during his tenure.

1946
The Rev. Dr. Webster K. Reinert is named superintendent of the Topton home, serving in that role until 1975. Experiencing changes in society that result in the home’s receiving children from “broken families” or whose parents are experiencing mental challenges or other problems, Reinert begins a casework program for the children. Facilities on the campus continue to be upgraded during his tenure and the Topton campus’ school-since the children are now attending public schools-is converted to a residence for older boys.

1947
The Tressler Boys Band is discontinued. With the home’s students now in public schools, and more high schools having bands, interest in the touring band has dwindled.

1948
A swimming pool honoring alumni is dedicated at the Tressler home.

1950
Lutherans in the Harrisburg area form the Harrisburg Lutheran Inner Mission Society to provide services to older persons.

A private residence near the Topton campus is purchased and converted into the “Heilman Cottage for Old Folks.” The campus is now able to serve 29 older persons.

1952
The Lutheran Home at Harrisburg is dedicated.

1953
Recognizing changes in society, the Tressler Orphans Home is renamed The Tressler Lutheran Home for Children.

1954
The Rev. Justus H. Liesmann is named superintendent of the Tressler Lutheran Home. While some upgrades will be made to the facilities during the next five years, the population of the home continues to decline.

1955
The Topton trustees, using a bequest from Elizabeth B. Caum of Bethlehem, purchase a large mansion in Reading to serve additional older persons. Known originally as Caum Memorial Home, the program is eventually renamed Caum Assisted Living; the site will continue to serve older adults for 50 years.

1956
Lutherans from 36 congregations in northeastern Pennsylvania form Lutheran Welfare Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania, based at Hazleton. The group’s initial residential facility houses six older persons; later (in 1965), as demands for service grow, the agency purchases a former hotel in downtown Hazleton, converting it into a skilled nursing and residential care facility known as the Home for the Aging.

1958
The Lutheran Home on the West Shore, Camp Hill, Pa., is dedicated as a facility of the Harrisburg Inner Mission Society.

LWS of Northeastern Pennsylvania receives its charter.

1961
The Lutheran Home of Upper Dauphin in Millersburg, another Harrisburg Inner Mission facility, is opened. Eventually, this home is replaced by Susquehanna Lutheran Village.

1962
The Henry Infirmary-offering additional services to older persons-is opened on the Topton campus. That same year, the first of the Luther Haven cottages are constructed. The Rev. Paul J. Henry, D.D., who as a son of the Rev. J.O. and Ida Henry grew up on the Topton home’s grounds, returns to serve as secretary of the board of trustees.

Acknowledging the changing face of children’s services, the board of trustees of the Tressler Lutheran Home for Children closes the institution; the grounds and buildings are sold the following year to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for use as a youth development center. Tressler begins to seek other ways to serve children and their families.

1964
Lutheran Social Services of Maryland, Inc.-the newer name for the Baltimore Inner Mission-creates the first professionally organized meals on wheels program in the nation. Later in the decade, a variety of community development programs are initiated in response to race riots in Baltimore.

1965
Tressler Lutheran Home for Children purchases a building in Mechanicsburg in which it opens a small group home for children. Over the next several years, Tressler places social workers serving children and families at multiple locations including Baltimore, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.

Lutheran Social Services of the Central Region-the newer name for the Harrisburg Inner Mission Society-begins to develop social services throughout central Pennsylvania.

1968
Lutheran Social Services of the Susquehanna Region in Williamsport-created as an inner mission society in that area in the 1950s-and Lutheran Social Services of the Central Region in Harrisburg merge to form Lutheran Social Services-Central Penn Region.

With the number of children served at Topton this year down to 52, a full-time director of children’s services is hired to look at other ways to serve children. A foster care program is launched in 1971.

The Rev. William J. Black is named executive director of Lutheran Social Services of Maryland, serving in that role until 1992.

1969
Tressler Lutheran Home for Children initiates an adoption program. James Raun, formerly an official with the Central Pennsylvania Synod, is named Tressler’s executive director.

1970
LSS-Central Penn Region and Tressler Lutheran Home for Children begin working cooperatively, sharing staff and quarters.

1972
Tressler-Lutheran Service Associates is formed to provide services on behalf of Tressler Lutheran Home for Children and LSS-Central Penn Region. The adoption program of Tressler focuses exclusively on the placement of children with special needs, eventually becoming a model for similar programs across the country. Tressler begins its refugee resettlement program by helping to resettle Ugandan-Asians.

1973
Perry Village opens in New Bloomfield, not far from the original Tressler home. It is the first of numerous nursing care centers developed by Tressler in the 1970s, many of which are the result of partnerships between the agency and local county governments interested in closing their “county homes.”

1974
Lutheran Welfare Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania purchases the Hilltop Manor Convalescent Center, creating a skilled care facility called Saint Luke Manor. In 1983, a second skilled care facility is opened on the campus; it is known as Saint Luke Pavilion, and residents from the downtown Hazleton home are its first residents. That same year, residential accommodations are developed in six townhomes known as Amity Lane. They later become part of an expanded retirement community known as Amity Village. Later, when the entire village is renamed, the facilities become The Manor at Saint Luke Village, The Pavilion at Saint Luke Village, and Amity Place at Saint Luke Village.

1975
The Rev. Dr. Paul L. Buehrle is named president of The Lutheran Home at Topton. Interesting, in light of the later affiliation of Topton and Tressler, is that Jim Raun, then head of Tressler-Lutheran Service Associates and consulting with Topton, asked Buehrle if he would be interested in meeting with the Topton search committee. Buehrle would serve for 20 years, a time during which the institutional program for children ended-in the late 1970s, the state required that all children be deinstitutionalized-but other children’s services, as well as community-based programs and a wide array of facilities for older persons, were created, including the Topton-based Continuing Care Retirement Community, Tower Court. His first year, for example, the George E. Holton Memorial Cottage is renovated to become an emergency-care center for boys, and a new cottage is built to house teen-age boys. Later, this second cottage, known as the Koch-Knauss building, is reconfigured to offer apartments for older persons.

Tressler’s Refugee Services program is heavily involved in the placement of Vietnamese refugees as a result of the Boat Lift and Operation Baby Lift, through which Tressler finds homes for more than 200 children from the An Lac orphanage near Saigon.

LWS of Northeastern Pennsylvania begins to offer support and counseling services, preventive and training skills to clergy and laity in its 10-county region. Originally called the Division for Parish Resources, this program grows to become Genesis, still an agency service, and Life Enrichment Services.

1976
The Lutheran Home at Topton receives the Senior Neighborhood Centers contract for Berks County, with responsibility for senior centers, social programs, and meals on wheels.

Frey Village, one of Tressler’s larger facilities, opens on the site of the former Emaus Orphan House in Middletown, Pa.

In response to the deinstitutionalization of children at the former White Hill youth center near Camp Hill, Tressler develops a foster-care based Alternative Living Program. Eventually, this becomes the Community Treatment Program, which in turn becomes the TresslerCare continuum of youth services.

1977
Family Life Services of The Lutheran Home at Topton is created, as a significant way of increasing services to the larger community. Its services include counseling, pastoral care teams, consultation, employee assistance programs, and drug and alcohol services and interventions.

The Rev. Harold Haas is named president of Tressler-Lutheran Service Associates.

Tressler receives multiple state contracts to provide refugee services in much of Pennsylvania. A statewide telephone Hot Line is established; this service will operate until 1982.

1978
The Lutheran Home at Topton is operating numerous community living centers for children in Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton counties. This expanded community-based service to children is the result of deinstitutionalization of care for children, as well as the earlier transfer by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod of Lutheran Children’s and Family Services to the Topton home.

LWS receives a three-year demonstration grant from the former U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to establish a hospice program. Hospice Saint John becomes one of the first professionally organized hospices in the country and grows to become the extensive service it is today.

1981
TresslerCare launches its Wilderness Challenge course, the first of its wilderness-based programs for adjudicated delinquent and dependent youths.

1982
The Luther Meadows rental-subsidized housing building is dedicated on the Topton campus; eight years later, a second, similar facility known as Heilman House is completed.

1983
Luther Crest, a Continuing Care Retirement Community in Allentown, is dedicated.

Lutheran Employment Training Services, or LETS, is begun by Lutheran Social Services of Maryland, Inc. Other LSS of Maryland programs include community counseling services-begun in 1962-and in-home care.

Lutherwood, a HUD rental-subsidized facility begun by LWS, opens in Scranton, Pa.

1985
The Topton home adds a home health services program.

Tressler purchases-rather than builds-its 10th retirement village, Penn Lutheran Village at Selinsgrove, Pa.

The Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Hurlocker is named president of Tressler Lutheran Services. He will serve until 2000 when Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries is formed and he retires.

1988
Tressler-Lutheran Service Associates and LSS-Central Penn Region merge to form Tressler Lutheran Services. Tressler Lutheran Children & Family Services (a newer name for the Tressler Lutheran Home for Children) becomes the Tressler Lutheran Fund, a supporting organization. Tressler moves into its new headquarters near Mechanicsburg.

Tressler opens the Good News Children’s Day Care Center in Baltimore, part of an effort to expand services in urban areas.

1992
The Lutheran Inner Mission Society of Berks and Schuylkill and The Lutheran Home at Topton merge.

1993
The Lutheran Home at Topton begins a major capital campaign, the result of which is the renovation of a section of the retirement facility into the Buehrle Center for Assisted Living. Later, as the result of a significant contribution, a section of the center is developed to provide SpecialCare for assisted-living residents with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments. This is known as the Timothy M. Breidegam Center.

Tressler celebrates its 125th anniversary with a variety of events including a walk by a TresslerCare Wilderness School youth from the former Tressler Orphans Home to Tressler’s headquarters near Mechanicsburg.

1994
Lutheran Social Services of Maryland becomes a subsidiary organization of Tressler Lutheran Services known as Tressler Lutheran Services of Maryland, Inc.

Family and Children’s Service of Lycoming County, which shared office space with Tressler Counseling Services of Williamsport for years, merges operations with Tressler.

1995
The Rev. Daun E. McKee, Ph.D., is named president and CEO of The Lutheran Home at Topton. He had served for nearly 20 years as president/CEO of Allegheny Lutheran Social Ministries, based at Hollidaysburg.

Kairos Health Systems, Inc., is created by several Lutheran agencies, including both Topton and Tressler. The goal of Kairos is to negotiate managed-care contracts on behalf of the stake-holder agencies.

LWS of Northeastern Pennsylvania launches its KidzStuff before- and after-school program in Monroe County.

1996
The Lutheran Home at Topton celebrates its 100th anniversary with a variety of events including a professionally filmed movie about the orphanage’s origin.

LWS of Northeastern Pennsylvania begins the Weinberg House, an assisted living program for the terminally ill.

1997
The Lutheran Home at Topton and Lutheran Welfare Service of Northeastern Pennsylvania affiliate to form Lutheran Services Northeast to provide services on their behalf.

Tressler Lutheran Services of Maryland, Inc., drops its subsidiary status as it merges with Tressler Lutheran Services.

Visiting Nurses Association of the Lehigh Valley-which dates to 1947-affiliates with Lutheran Services Northeast under the name of Visiting Nurses Northeast.

1998
The boards of directors of Lutheran Services Northeast and Tressler Lutheran Services agree to begin talks aimed at affiliation of the two organizations.

The LSN board of directors approves an agreement to purchase a former nursing care center in East Stroudsburg for renovation into an assisted living facility, to be known as Pocono Lutheran Village.

Susquehanna Lutheran Village, the first Tressler facility to adopt the Eden Alternative, becomes the first long-term care facility in the nation to receive the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization’s Codman Award. The award recognizes the use of outcomes measurement in assuring quality care.

LSN purchases the Manatawny Manor retirement campus in Pottstown. The facility offers skilled nursing care, assisted living services, SpecialCare for those with cognitive impairments, and adult day services.

Tressler breaks ground in Salisbury, Md., for a retirement community to be known as The Lutheran Village at Harbor Pointe. The campus will include senior housing accommodations and assisted-living accommodations.

1999
The boards of directors of Lutheran Services Northeast and Tressler Lutheran Services unanimously approve the affiliation of the two organizations.

The Lutheran Center in Baltimore is dedicated. Located on the grounds of Christ Lutheran Church, Inner Harbor, the six-story building houses the offices of Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, Lutheran World Relief, the Delaware-Maryland Synod, and, initially, Tressler Adoption Services and Community Ministries. These two Diakon programs later relocate to other Baltimore-area offices.

Family Life Services of The Lutheran Home at Topton begins significant expansion of its services into the “Northern Tier” of the LSN territory.

Luther Ridge at Seiders Hill opens near Pottsville. The state-of-the-art assisted living facility replaces operations in a leased facility opened in 1991.

2000
Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries is born, with the Rev. Daun E. McKee as president/CEO. The Diakon board of directors adopts a policy model of governance.

With service drastically curtailed by changes in reimbursement, Visiting Nurses Northeast is merged with Sacred Heart Home Health Care Services in Allentown, forming Sacred Heart Visiting Nurses. Hospice Saint John becomes the health system’s preferred provider of hospice services.

Diakon Lutheran Social Ministries receives a five-year contract to operate Pennsylvania’s StateWide Adoption Network, or SWAN.

The agency launches Diakon University, a career-track training program for direct-care staff, primarily in Retirement & Health Care Services.

2001
Diakon opens Pocono Lutheran Village, an 80-unit assisted living center in East Stroudsburg, Pa.

Faced with the challenges of a changing marketplace, declining reimbursements, and increased competition, Diakon begins an aggressive advertising campaign and undertakes a substantial turn-around plan to stabilize finances in the new millennium. The effort includes the outsourcing of dietary and housekeeping/laundry staff at senior living communities as well as the closing of several Congregation, Children, & Family Services programs that had posted deficits for years and that offered services readily available elsewhere within the community. By October, the plan begins to show positive cash-flow results, with similar results continuing throughout 2002. The agency moves from a $14 million deficit in 2001 to the generation in 2002 of $3 million in excess revenue over expenses, critical to long-term success in serving more people, the goal of Diakon’s creation.

Diakon works through Lutheran Disaster Relief services to begin a program offering respite care to clergy and their families who have been affected by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

2002
Diakon breaks ground for a $2-plus million capital expansion at the TresslerCare Wilderness Center to include new housing facilities, a state-of-the-art greenhouse (used as part of the wastewater-treatment system), and a new classroom/gymnasium building. The campaign reaches the halfway point by the end of the year.

Diakon’s corporate office relocates from Old Main on The Lutheran Home at Topton campus to the third floor of the Medical Arts Building at Luther Crest in Allentown; some support offices continue to be based at Mechanicsburg.

The agency conducts an extensive study to reposition Retirement & Health Care Services campuses to meet the demands of the changing health-care market. Several task forces are charged with making recommendations on how to offer “21st Century Housing.”

2003
Diakon’s four adult day services centers are relocated administratively from Retirement & Health Care Services to Congregation, Children, & Family Services as part of continuing efforts to increase the agency’s community outreach services. Other Congregation, Children, & Family Services programs are “re-branded” as a way of promoting Diakon system-wide services.

Diakon purchases Cumberland Crossings Retirement Community from the Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation. The Continuing Care Retirement Community consists of 115 units of senior living accommodations, 45 assisted living units, and 59 skilled-care beds.

2004
Hospice Saint John expands it services by developing a palliative care program.

Diakon creates a pilot project known as Diakon Help at Home, a fee-for-service program that helps older adults remain independent and in their own homes. Initial efforts in the Reading area are very successful.

Diakon dedicates the refurbished and expanded Wilderness Center.

Diakon announces plans to renovate and expand Luther Crest in Allentown to include two new housing communities on the senior living campus, as well as expanded apartments.

Diakon discontinues Refugee and Immigration Services, an agency program since the 1970s. A precipitous drop in refugee admissions following the 9/11/01 attacks on the United States resulted in the change. The program change is effective in early spring 2005. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service later retains the Baltimore operation.

2005
Diakon pledges $100,000 to Lutheran World Relief, as well as a match of employee gifts up to a total of $50,000, for relief efforts in Southeast Asia following the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

In March, Diakon announces the sale of freestanding nursing care and assisted living centers at nine of its locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland to Tandem Health Care, based in Florida. The transaction involves Frostburg Village in western Maryland (though not Frosburg Heights); Locust Grove Retirement Village, Mifflin, Pa.; Luther Ridge Assisted Living near Pottsville, Pa.; The Lutheran Village at Harbor Pointe, Salisbury, Md.; Pennknoll Village, Everett, Pa.; Penn Lutheran Village, Selinsgrove, Pa.; Perry Village, New Bloomfield, Pa.; Saint Luke Village, Hazleton, Pa.; and Susquehanna Lutheran Village, Millersburg, Pa. Faced with significant need to upgrade all of its 20-plus retirement communities and lacking sufficient financial and human resources to make those upgrades-estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars-Diakon opts to sell the freestanding facilities and concentrate on renovation and expansion of the remaining senior living communities. Tandem Health Care is selected based on how well it had met provisions established for the sale by a Diakon ethics committee; those provisions included commitment to quality care, continued employment of the facilities’ Diakon employees, and a focus on renovations to provide optimum living accommodations for residents.

Diakon later announces the discontinuation of assisted living services at Caum Assisted Living in Reading. The former mansion is increasingly ill-suited to provide assisted living services or to allow residents to “age in place.” At the same time, Diakon describes plans to create a Lutheran services center in the building.

2006
Diakon launches a branding campaign under the theme of Many Hands. One Heart. to help more people learn of the scope of the organization’s many ministries. The campaign includes extensive advertising.

Diakon purchases Twining Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community in Holland, Bucks County, Pa.

 

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