M ayell, Birch, Fu ller & Ireland For the older folks, their heart's desire.
they call it T he idea of tottering off to an old folks home at some specified age isn’t exactly appealing to most people. But for a lot of older folks, even with substantial funds, there often isn’t a better place to go. For some Christians, however, the problem is being solved with the opening of a new “ life-care residence” in Santa Barbara, Cal. The new residence is called Samarkand, which (in a city with strong Spanish roots) is the Arabian way of saying, “ heart’s desire.” Samarkand is the brain child of Lionel V. Mayell, large-scale builder of luxury-type apart ment homes in Southern California. Mayell and his close friend, Dr. Clyde Narramore (public school psychologist and active Christian layman) sold the idea of a high-class residence for Chris tian oldsters to Southern California petroleum magnate A. Otis Birch. Others in on the project 14
are Dr. Charles E. Fuller, director of the Old Fashioned Revival Hour, industrialist Robert G. LeTourneau, Philadelphia financier Leon Sulli van and a dozen other Christian laymen. Samarkand is made up of a group of 34 elaborate villas surrounding a hotel-type central building and located on 16 tropical-lush acres in the Santa Barbara hills. The residence will provide all meals, medical care, chapel, recrea tion and hobby facilities. A few backers of the idea for awhile enter tained some rather well-defined doubts about filling up Samarkand. There seemed to be a question if there were many Christians around with the kind of cash a luxurious retirement calls for. But the doubts soon melted away like a stray cloud in a sunny Santa Barbara sky. “ Heart’s desire” was finding plenty of customers. THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs