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Valley View is NOT just a location! It is a program for elderly deaf and deaf-blind centered on 24/7 communication accessibility. These elderly individuals chose to reside together in a sign language environment which includes staff with whom they can communicate. The residents elected to live out their lives at Valley View as the other options are places where communication isolation occurs as there is no one to communicate with in sign language.

For 110 years, PSAD has been involved with the home for the aged deaf in the Commonwealth. For the first 70 years of the Valley View program, PSAD was directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the home. And during the last 40 years, PSAD has had three representatives on the Elwyn Board.

While PSAD is currently investigating, evaluating and questioning the issues regarding Valley View licensure --- read about the early history of the PSAD Home leading up to the transfer of the program to Elwyn.

May our past lead to a better understanding of our direction going henceforth.

Early History of the Pennsylvania Home for the Elderly Deaf and Deaf-Blind

At the end of his tenure in 1901, PSD Headmaster Dr. Crouter utilized the Benevolent Fund (of which he was also the president) to acquire a property in Doylestown for a sum of $ 6,550 to function as a home for the elderly deaf. The Doylestown home continued from 1902 to 1925 under the direction of PSAD Board of Trustees.

The Doylestown Home

In 1925, the Torresdale Home was acquired for a sum of $ 50,000. The property directly faced the Delaware River in Northeast Philadelphia. In 1927, oversight of the home was formally transferred to Committee on Management of the Home, a subsidiary of PSAD.

The Torresdale Home                                 Residents, circa 1935

In the late sixties, there were rapid changes to laws and some residents had run out of money to pay for their care. Funding was also needed to upgrade the home to qualify for newly developed state licensure. The state, at the time, did not provide grants for elderly care capital projects.

Governor Lawrence and Esther Jacobs, 1961

Through the dedicated activities of Charles Boyd, Ralph Harwood, Nelson Boyer and Frank Nemshick, the estate of George W. Nevil was identified as a source of funding as there was a provision directing the estate proceeds towards an asylum for deaf. The Nevil trustees toured the Torresdale home and they contacted Elwyn to see if there was space on their campus to accommodate the Torresdale program.

Planned Addition to the Torresdale Home

The Nevil trustees then approached PSAD saying they could not give funding directly to the Torresdale home but proposed the possibility of moving the program to Elwyn in which event the funds would be released to the program. PSAD ultimately agreed to the change and a legal process ensued to finalize the details which included transferring the existing funds of the home to Elwyn, PSAD retaining the proceeds from the sale of the Torresdale home, and three permanent seats on the Elwyn Board for PSAD representatives.

Charles Boyd of PSAD was hired as the initial Administrator of the Nevil Home at Elwyn and his office there was used as a business office of PSAD.

The Nevil Home, 1972-1982