AFFORDABLE SENIOR LIVING WITH A PURPOSE DOWLING GARDENS IN SPARKILL IS ROCKLAND’S BEST KEPT SECRET STORY BY TOM RILEY ︱ PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA FINCH
Sister Ursula Joyce
Sister Ursula Joyce is seeing the culmination of a dream come true. In 1979, the Dominican Sisters closed St. Agnes Home and School for Boys in Sparkill, a work they had begun in 1884. They then faced the challenge of finding a new use for the property consistent with their mission of service. The need for affordable senior housing in Rockland County emerged as a priority and a yearslong journey began to make the dream a reality. Sister Ursula coordinated the Sisters’ efforts to secure funding and obtain the necessary zone changes and all the other Town and County approvals needed. Their success can be seen in the two affordable senior living communities that are now part of the Sisters’ Sparkill campus: Thorpe Village, a 200-unit apartment complex on Route 340 and Dowling Gardens, a 111-unit apartment complex on Kings Highway in Sparkill. Dowling Gardens was designed to create a fully accessible housing community with services and amenities that supported the efforts of frail, but otherwise healthy elders, to maintain their independence to the extent possible in a non-medical setting. They enjoy a one bedroom apartment equipped with an emergency call system, a daily dinner with choice of menu served in a 60 / Rivertown Magazine July 2019