In 1884, a group of local Protestant women saw the need to provide care for homeless yet “respectable” elderly people. The home quickly outgrew its rented building downtown, so construction began in 1891 on the new structure’s first stage on Downer Avenue. Koch styled the home after the châteaus of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France as evident in the steeply pitched, highly detailed roof, towers, and gables. The elaborate gable on the broad entrance pavilion with its Renaissance ornament and its framing towers is highly characteristic. Many additions over the years transformed the château to resemble a fashionable resort hotel, with its long, rambling profile and long verandas. Koch added a wing in 1897 that reaches north along Downer Avenue and terminates in a front-facing gable. In 1926, local architects Scott and Mayer added a large south wing facade to create a more uniform Chateauesque appearance. Since World War II, four additions have been attached to the rear of the building.