Aside from a beauty parlor and auto repair shop, the retirement community is the town: 477 of the town's 658 residents live there. The non-denominational church is the centerpiece of Penney Retirement Community in the town of Penney Farms. "Particularly, you don't hear much cursing," laughs Fred Burton, who retired here six years ago from Cleveland. Residents generally abstain from drinking, smoking and strong language. Penney Farms provides a retirement haven for retired ministers and other church workers.
The church is certainly the only one with nearly 50 ministers - each takes to the pulpit one Sunday a year. Howard Tappan, the choir's music director, who died in July, had a doctorate and 50 years' experience.
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From a back room, 38 voices practice harmonizing a Bach chorale.Īmong the hundreds of churches in rural north Florida, Penney Memorial may be the only one that can boast choir members trained at the prestigious Eastman School of Music - and five professional organists. A 22-rank pipe organ towers over 275 seats - all empty on this weekday afternoon. Penney built in 1926 to honor his parents, sunlight filters through stained glass to light tall arches hewn from red cedar and cypress. In the country church that department store magnate J.C. At both Moosehaven and Penney Farms, that approach produces good quality and relatively inexpensive elder care that has sustained the communities for decades. But they have a key element in common: Both bring together people of similar interests and experiences who help care for each other as they share the end of life. The two communities would appear to share little but age - both were founded 75 years ago. At Penney Retirement Community in Penney Farms, a pious population of elderly ministers and missionaries continues to serve God in retirement. At blue-collar Moosehaven in Orange Park, residents bowl, shoot pool, drink beer and reminisce about the good old days at their former Moose lodges. The University of Florida is building one for Gator fans.īut few are as distinctive as two communities just 20 miles from each other in Clay County, southwest of Jacksonville. There are communities for golfers, animal lovers, even recreational-vehicle aficionados. Florida is home to thousands of continuing care communities where seniors retire first to independent homes or apartments, then to assisted-living facilities, then to a nursing home - all on the same campus.