Rutherford House is a partially undiscovered jewel.
Equidistant from the commercial Paxton Street and the bucolic Capital Area Green Belt, this senior center for individuals 55 and up offers a hum of activities that draws members – and visitors at public programs – from Carlisle, Middletown, Hershey, and Elizabethtown, in addition to Harrisburg and nearby townships.
All Rutherford House needs is to be further discovered. “We have about 150 members, and definitely want to increase that,” said Peggy Scrobola, executive director.
Scrobola has been at the center for a decade, and is its only full-time paid employee. Rutherford House relies heavily on volunteers to teach and run programs.
Kay Waddell has been volunteering since January through AARP: greeting visitors with her broad smile, distributing literature and schedules, and serving as the unofficial storyteller and “historian.”
Rutherford House has a colorful history. It is named for a prominent Harrisburg family, which built its first residence, known as “The Spring House” (it’s still on the property), in the mid-1700s. In 1858, the family erected a mansion and lived there for generations.
Dauphin County bought the mansion in 1920, turning it into a juvenile-detention center. Five decades later, Rutherford Family Mansion began to house a senior program co-established by Pennsylvania’s former First Lady, Muriel Shapp, after the Governor’s Mansion was vacated during Agnes. Originally called Capital City Late Start, the program led a nomadic existence in schools and churches before finding a permanent home—and name change—in 1978.
“I love it here,” Waddell said.
The center is a private, independent nonprofit, though funded in part by the county. Rutherford House leases the facility from the county for $1 a year and is responsible for its maintenance.
Waiting for a Zumba class is Becky Lovett, who has been coming to Rutherford House regularly for a year. She also takes aerobics, line dancing, and chair yoga.
Retired from the state, Lovett loves the opportunity to meet new people and socializing at programs and parties. “Everyone here is lovey-dovey,” she said. “And it’s a great deal.”
Membership dues are $30 a year. (Zumba is extra, at $3 a session).
Activities include Bingo; movies; a book club; quilting; cards; and billiards. Not to mention health and wellness and nutrition lectures and screenings and a monthly lunch brunch.
There are Fall Frolic and ice-cream socials; a resident chapter of the Red Hat Society holds a monthly meeting and sponsors theater outings and luncheons. The Visiting Nurses Association offers flu shots in October.
Rutherford House seems to win people’s loyalty. Cheryl Yablon taught exercise and dance there for nearly 25 years and misses it. “It’s an active senior center, with many classes,” she said. “The people who go to Rutherford are very warm and make others feel very welcome. Peggy tries to offer the best to her participants. We all try to offer as much as we can for seniors who are still in their own environments and want to interact with peers.”
The center is “very pleasant and accommodating, and the clients are very nice,” said Bev Sable, who has taught dance and fitness at Rutherford House for three years. In the spring she introduced Zumba Gold, a class that’s lower-impact but higher in its instructional component than regular Zumba. “It’s a nice, tight community.”
Every Wednesday morning volunteer Harold “Skip” Smedley mans a computer lab he helped set up—guiding perplexed would-be techies.
“I started dabbling in computers in the Navy and have been a coach and teacher here for 12 years,” said Smedley, a retired electromotor manager at Edwin Hill Heim Co.
So far the computer lab has been free, though Rutherford House might start charging a fee for non-members.
Walt Tomlinson often comes by with questions and to chat. A retired registered nurse at Osteopathic and former military man, he “hated” using the computer at the hospital and wanted to learn its benefits. “I also want to keep my mind active,” he said. “If I have a problem, I wait ‘till Wednesday, when I can see Skip.”
Seeing other people with whom they’ve formed friendships and participating in activities they enjoy makes Rutherford House a jewel for many.
“We’re always open to members’ ideas,” Scrobola said. “If we can fit it in and find an instructor, we’ll try to do it.”
For more information on The Rutherford House, 3300 Parkview Lane, Harrisburg, call 717-564-5682 or visit www.rutherfordhouse.org.
