Harbor House closes its doors after two years

Harbor House, the assisted living facility, closed its doors on Sept. 1. The facility opened in April of 2017 as a place for Wrangell's senior citizens to live, and also became a popular spot for haunted houses around Halloween.

Before then, the building was known as the Sourdough Lodge. According to a 2017 article in the Wrangell Sentinel, Harbor House offered five assisted living rooms and an additional 11 rooms for senior housing.

According to a letter sent to employees of Harbor House, the reason for the closure was due to undisclosed health concerns of the owner, Shannon Bosdell.

"I want to thank you all for your dedication to bringing joy [to] our seniors life," the letter reads. "I know how thankless of a job it is but know each and everyone of you have earned my respect."

Bosdell did not go into detail about his health issues but said that he closed Harbor House "with a heavy heart." He said that he worked with the state directly to make sure that the closure was done within regulations, and to try and find placement for affected seniors. All residents left Harbor House on or before the closure date.

"We worked with several people in town in an attempt to keep it going and have someone who could manage it in my stay while dealing with what I am dealing with," Bosdell said in a Facebook message. "But it is a very difficult job and thankless and takes a special kind of person who can dedicate their life's [sic] to such a calling."

Bruce Harding, owner of the Harbor House building, did not have much information at the time of writing regarding the future of the facility. There are no plans for the future at this time, he said, and they are focusing on cleaning up the grounds.

The current situation for the former residents of Harbor House is largely unknown, as well. Ethel Lane, with the senior apartments on Bennett Street, said that a few people have stopped by for applications but none have been returned yet. For Wrangell's seniors, one of the other housing options available to them is the Long Term Care facility at the Wrangell Medical Center. Maegan Bosak, with SEARHC, said that she could not provide information about any recent move-ins to Long Term Care without making a HIPAA violation. However, she did say that Long Term Care is a good option for assisted living that Wrangell families may want to consider.

According to Wrangell resident Briana Schilling, whose 90-year-old grandmother lived at Harbor House, residents received a letter in early August saying that they would need to move out by Sept. 1 at the latest. She is currently caring for her grandmother, she said, but is on a waitlist for a place in Long Term Care.

"The closure, on such short notice, has put an extreme amount of stress on her which she definitely didn't need," Schilling wrote in a Facebook message. "I am currently taking care of her, but her living situation is less than ideal."

Marylin Mork, another Wrangellite, said that both of her in-laws were Harbor House residents, too. She said that her father-in-law has moved in with her family, and her mother-in-law will also be moving in once she recovers from a broken hip at the hospital.