Baptist Retirement Community

Baptist Retirement Community has grown from its beginning as a small hospital into a large continuum of care retirement community. Elsie Gayer, a registered nurse, founded the center in 1951 as a tuberculosis hospital built on the charitable contributions of several friends. Appropriately, the center was named Memorials Hospital because of the cont... ributions made in memory of loved ones. Shortly after the hospital opened, medical advances led to a rapid decline in the number of tuberculosis patients. With the number of empty beds growing, Gayer decided to admit an elderly neighbor who could no longer live alone. Soon word spread that the hospital was admitting senior adults for long-term care and the demand began to grow. In 1957, Gayer donated the hospital to the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the name was changed to Baptist Memorials Geriatric Center. This began a period of growth as the center expanded its ministry. Over the years, the campus grew to include a chapel, library, cottages for independent living, Sagecrest Alzheimer Care Center, Green House® homes and many other services. In 2010, Buckner Retirement Services and Baptist Memorial Ministries, affiliated to bring Baptist Retirement Community in San Angelo and The Woodlands in Burnet, Texas, into the Buckner family. With the addition of these two communities, Buckner Retirement Services provides a host of senior living options in seven locations across Texas. Other Buckner communities are Buckner Retirement Village in Dallas, opened in 1954; Buckner Villas in Austin, opened in 1970; Buckner Westminster Place in Longview, opened in 1996; Parkway Place in Houston, opened in 1998; and Calder Woods in Beaumont, opened in 2000. Caring for seniors began in 1879 at the Buckner Orphans Home, when row houses on the edge of the campus provided a place to live in dignity and comfort for retired pastors and missionaries, who served as grandparents for the children. Since the early days of founder R.C. Buckner's ministry, he used a familiar verse from ...Read More