Central Pennsylvania is heaven on earth for many seniors. In addition to not being taxed on Social Security income, retirement account withdrawals, and pensions in the Keystone State, retirees gravitate to the region for its cultural richness, serenity, and awe-inspiring nature. No wonder senior living communities in Central PA are sought-after destinations for pensioners and downsizers from anywhere.
Consider only the best if you’re looking for a loving community to spend your life’s next chapter. Discover what makes the region’s three finest senior living communities head and shoulders above the rest and the options they offer.
1. Garden Spot Village (GSV)
Since 1996, seniors in Lancaster County have called GSV home. This retirement community advocates active living, evidenced by its sought-after programs and amenities.
Living Options
GSV offers personal care, memory care and skilled nursing care. Although its residents have unique needs, the goals of its activities are the same — honor people’s individuality and leverage their life experiences to live with purpose.
This New Holland-based retirement community has staff around the clock to assist residents with whatever they need — preparing meals, housekeeping, maintaining personal hygiene, getting dressed, and managing prescriptions. GSV swears by its person-centered approach to care, which empowers residents to choose how they live their best lives daily.
In addition, GSV offers a nonmedical home care service for aging-in-place seniors. This organization extends personal care, essential household support, personalized transportation, and clinical services to address the needs of older adults with physical limitations due to their advanced age.
Aside from assisting with off-campus seniors’ errands, GSV provides companionship, wellness checks, care, and comfort for end-of-life and respite care.
Key Features
GSV is more similar to many senior living communities in Central PA than it is different. However, it is unique in its own way.
| Households | DayBreak | Campus Gardens | Volunteerism |
| Dining Options | Health and Wellness Center | Micro-Communities | Outpatient Medical Service |
Households
This retirement community offers various accommodations and neighborhoods for every budget and lifestyle. GSV has carriage homes with one- or two-car garages, available in four-floor plans and up to 2,000 square feet. Its cottages have four open-concept layouts to maximize their square footage for first-floor living. The organization’s Sycamore Springs favors outdoorsy residents. This neighborhood comprises super roomy homes with seven-floor plan options.
GSV’s apartment complexes offer more impressive views. They have larger, luxury two- and three-bedroom units in five-floor plans that frame panoramas of the mountains and countryside. The garden apartment units are perfect for downsizers, giving them six layout options to suit their unique needs. GSV also offers cooperative living — each house has separate bedrooms and communal spaces for five occupants. This option promises housing affordability and helps combat social isolation.
Dining Options
GSV has three eateries — The Terrace Dining Room, The Harvest Table and The Creamery. There is one for those who prefer casual dining, are in the mood for tableside service or wax nostalgic for the good old days.
In addition, SGV vertically grows crops in its greenhouse. The community’s chefs have access to various seasonal produce, including kale, lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes, 365 days a year to serve their best dishes throughout the seasons.
DayBreak
DayBreak, formerly called Adult Day Services, delivers supportive care to participants. This program involves individual and group activities that nurture the mind, body, and spirit. GSV staff help participants reevaluate their schedules quarterly to ensure they continue to have purpose-filled days.
Health and Wellness Center
This retirement community does more than provide residents with modern amenities to help them achieve their fitness goals. GSV’s wellness programs create an environment that promotes healthy lifestyle choices. Residents can join land and water classes optimized to boost energy and improve balance, allowing them to feel their best.
Campus Gardens
GSV believes in nature therapy. It has a conservatory and an indoor park, allowing biophilic residents to surround themselves with greenery. This senior living community also has artistic outdoor gardens with ponds, fountains, and a waterfall.
Micro-Communities
Residents can join small groups of like-minded individuals who love celebrating their passions in life. GSV has micro-communities of archivists, beekeepers, devout Protestants, gardeners, golfers, quilters, metal crafters, musicians, railfans, tech enthusiasts, woodworkers, and more.
Volunteerism
This organization gives residents the opportunity to positively impact local communities across Lancaster County by dedicating their resources — time, energy, or money — to causes they are passionate about. Some residents lend their income tax preparation skills to help hundreds complete their tax returns yearly.
Outpatient Medical Service
Operated by WellSpan Health Center, the full-service outpatient clinic at GSV offers standard health care services to residents and visitors, including primary care consultations, lab work, and provision of medical supplies.
1. Messiah Lifeways
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Messiah Lifeways has been around since 1896, making it one of the oldest senior living communities in Central PA. The Brethren in Christ Church established its first incarnation — Messiah Rescue and Benevolent Home — to extend Christ-like love to aging adults in South Central Pennsylvania. Over 128 years after its foundation, Messiah Lifeways remains true to its mission and opens its doors to anyone 55 or older seeking a sense of community in their sunset years.
Living Options
Messiah Lifeways offers various levels of care for retirees, including personal care or assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing care. Plus, it provides home and respite services.
This retirement community’s staff can assist independent retirees in daily tasks, including:
- Grooming and hygiene
- Housekeeping
- Medication
- Meal preparation
- Shopping
Messiah Lifeways offers programs for people with dementia. For example, this Mechanicsburg-based organization uses adult music therapy to help cognitively impaired residents freely express their feelings and keep their memories intact during sessions facilitated by board-certified music therapists.
Moreover, this senior living community offers person-centered care in five distinct nursing neighborhoods for residents with chronic health conditions and those who yearn for comfort at the end of life.
Messiah Lifeways also offers respite care — a sort of short-term version of its personal care option. It involves 14 to 30 days of stays, allowing primary caregivers to enjoy a much-needed break. This retirement home rolls out the red carpet for its transient residents, giving them access to comfortable private accommodations and high-quality amenities.
This senior living community also delivers home care to retirees who choose to age in place. It can send personal assistants to seniors who need help with chores, especially housekeeping and meal preparation.
Key Features
Messiah Lifeways ensures its residents enjoy their retirement with joy, hope, and fulfillment.
| Residences | Wellness Facilities | Day Spa | Church |
| Eateries | Lifelong Learning | Pastoral Ministries | Senior Centers |
Residences
Aspiring residents can choose from a wide range of housing options, including studio and two-bedroom apartments, cottages and estate homes, in more than a dozen floor plans.
Eateries
Residents enjoy mouthwatering food options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Messiah Lifeways offers at least four venues — Café 100, Evergreen Café, Fireside Grille, and Kathryn’s on the Square — that cater to various palates and dining preferences.
Wellness Facilities
Messiah Lifeways members can engage in individual and group activities to stay physically and mentally fit. The Messiah Village campus has a pool, a strength training studio, and a fitness studio, where aquatic instructors and personal trainers facilitate various health insurance-covered classes, such as chair yoga, kickboxing, tai chi, lap swimming, and water volleyball.
Lifelong Learning
Residents can enrich their knowledge by participating in fascinating courses, thought-provoking lectures, and cultural events in diverse educational settings and locations. They also have a chance to impart their wisdom by teaching, mentoring, and leading discussions with peers.
Day Spa
Messiah Lifeways pampers residents with standard salon services and reinvigorating spa treatments. Its Cerise Day Spa has a relaxation room with a stunning salt wall where residents can indulge in massage therapy.
Pastoral Ministries
Residents can participate in Bible studies, enjoy contemplative opportunities, and receive pastoral care and peer support to sustain their spiritual exploration.
Church
The Messiah Village Brethren in Christ Church welcomes residents seeking to celebrate their Christian faith and worship God through prayer, Bible-based preaching, and familiar hymns and choruses.
Senior Centers
Residents can frequent Mechanicsburg Place and West Shore Senior Center to socialize, meet other community members, and bond over coffee, card games, line dancing, crafting and other rewarding recreational activities.
3. Harmony at West Shore
Harmony at West Shore in Mechanicsburg puts a premium on gracious living. It takes pride in its resort-style amenities, stimulating on- and off-campus activities, delicious chef-prepared meals and best-in-class care.
Living Options
Unlike many senior living communities in Central PA, this one offers independent and assisted living, as well as personal and memory care.
Seniors who need as little assistance as possible can spend their golden years as they please. Residents never have to worry about home maintenance and housework again. With more time, independent living residents can truly retire from essential activities they do not particularly enjoy doing and dedicate themselves to what their hearts desire.
Aging adults seeking an assisted living arrangement undergo a meticulous assessment to receive an individualized service plan. Harmony’s warm staff generally helps with medication management, laundry, healthcare appointment scheduling, and more.
This senior living community treats people experiencing cognitive decline with respect and dignity. Its highly trained caregivers provide care day and night.
Harmony at West Shore exposes memory care residents to appropriate activities designed to conjure positive memories through Reflections. This family-focused art and music program uses therapeutic visual and tactile aids to stimulate the brain sections responsible for human connection and creativity. Memory care residents can reminisce and express themselves through various mediums, preventing disorientation and distracting their attention from their daily concerns.
Key Features
Harmony aspires to deliver senior living at its finest. Its rentals, dining options, and specialized programs and activities prove that.
| Accommodations and Neighborhoods | Emergency Call System | Concierge Service | On- and Off-Campus Activities |
| Weekly Housekeeping and Laundry | Needs-Based Dining | 24-Hour Fitness Center | Transportation |
Accommodations and Neighborhoods
This senior living community offers apartments in 11 sizes and layouts to suit individual needs and budgets. It has spacious one- and two-bedroom units for independent living residents that are move-in ready and pet-friendly, ranging from 675 to 1,335 square feet.
The 15 residence options in Harmony’s personal care neighborhood are smaller on paper. However, these airy studios and one-bedroom apartments appear larger in reality.
Memory care residents live in less spacious homes by design. Limited square footage aids familiarity, reducing the stressors people with dementia deal with. Nevertheless, residents can choose from two studio and three one-bedroom floor plans optimized for warmth and navigability.
Weekly Housekeeping and Laundry
Professional cleaners take chores off Harmony residents’ plates efficiently and effectively. They also use attention to detail to spot and address hazards early to ensure everyone’s health and safety.
Emergency Call System
This senior living community has invested in a cutting-edge emergency call system, which allows residents to request assistance or report incidents immediately.
Needs-Based Dining
Independent living residents can rent apartments with full-size kitchens so they can cook if desired. Their personal care counterparts also make coffee and prepare quick snacks in their in-home kitchenettes.
Harmony offers a restaurant-style dining room, bistro, and pub. Its skilled culinary team, headed by an executive chef, diligently prepares delicious meals packed with flavor and nutritional value using locally sourced ingredients. Meal delivery is also an option for those who don’t want to leave their homes.
This senior living community promotes a home-like dining atmosphere for memory care residents. They can socialize with neighbors in a relaxed, warm environment and receive support when needed. Harmony offers a dementia-friendly menu and observes scheduled meal and refreshment times to introduce more structure to the day of cognitively impaired residents.
Concierge Service
Harmony has a concierge ready to assist independent living residents with personal business. This professional can run errands, set appointments, make travel arrangements, and more. Using this invaluable service to deal with mundane activities is a considerable time-saver.
24-Hour Fitness Center
Harmony at West Shore always keeps the lights on in its on-site gym. Independent-living residents can work out anytime and pursue their health goals at their own pace.
On- and Off-Campus Activities
Every day is eventful on campus. The community prepares a monthly calendar of activities and events, allowing residents to pass the time and keeping them physically active and mentally engaged.
Harmony at West Shore is conveniently near parks, shopping centers, local dining spots, and art attractions. Living here makes it painless to hike the breathtaking Appalachian Trail, go on a food crawl, and meet local artists with friends and loved ones.
Transportation
Mobility is never an issue in this community. Harmony employees can drive assisted living residents who have medical appointments or want to go shopping. Scheduled transportation is available to more independent residents who wish to explore the greater community.
Which Among These Best Senior Living Communities in Central PA Suit Your Unique Needs?
Although retirement communities are more alike than dissimilar, the best go the extra mile to satisfy the basic needs of diverse residents and exceed expectations. You can never go wrong with GSV, Messiah Lifeways, or Harmony at West Shore, so pick the community that supports your desired retirement lifestyle.