ROCKLAND, Maine — The historic Talbot Home that housed elderly residents for generations before closing in July has been bought by its neighbors.
Michael LaPosta Jr. and Cheryl Michaelsen, owners and operators of the Berry Manor Inn since 1996, purchased the Talbot Home on Dec. 10.
Michaelsen said there are no specific plans yet for the former Talbot Home.
“We’re still trying to figure that out. We wanted to protect our interests,” she said, pointing out that the property abuts the Berry Manor Inn and is within 30 feet of the inn’s carriage house.
“This is a grand old home. We want to make sure it is taken care of,” the inn owner said.
The three-story Victorian home near downtown Rockland closed officially in July, but its last resident moved out in February. The decision to close was made by the board of directors of the non-profit Talbot Home Corporation. In July, board Vice Chairman Charles Heald said the organization could no longer sustain the financial losses.
The 20-room house had been licensed to have six residents.
The board made a public relations push earlier this year to try to attract new residents and explored options to generate other revenues, such as accepting adults with dementia for a day program. But those efforts did not succeed.
The Talbot Home organization originally was called the Home for Aged Women and started more than 100 years ago at a house on North Main Street near the intersection of Broadway. In 1963, Marion Talbot Lilley and Jean Talbot Foote, whose family had been benefactors for the organization, donated the house on Talbot Avenue.
The asking price for the home was $299,000. In July, Heald said the board had yet to decide what to do with an endowment of about $300,000 as well as any proceeds from the sale. Heald said in July that options included using that money to provide any needed services for elderly in Rockland or to donate the money to another nonprofit organization that serves the elderly.
Board members could not be immediately reached Tuesday morning.