Seton Village
Emmittsburg, MD
adapting for positive change
The 43-unit Seton Village in the rural community of Emmitsburg, MD provides affordable housing for seniors, while preserving and reusing a historic site of the Daughters of Charity. The project helped provide quality affordable housing in an area that needed it, and provided a creative solution for a facility that was under-utilized because of its declining population.
Harkins gutted the 52,000 sf wing of the Daughters of Charity’s St. Joseph’s Provincial House and constructed, in the shell, 43 affordable apartments for seniors aged 62 and over. The community contains thirty-one one-bedroom apartments that are HUD Section 202 restricted units, and twelve two-bedroom units. Five of the apartments are handicapped accessible. Each apartment has one bathroom, a full kitchen, high efficiency HVAC, Energy Star appliances, and water conserving fixtures. Resident common areas include a meeting space, a computer room, a library, a resident lounge, laundry facilities, and management offices.
Additional amenities include a basilica, a visitor center, and a memorial to Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American canonized as a saint. Approximately 45,000 tourists make a pilgrimage each year to the shrine of St. Elizabeth, who formed the religious community in 1809 and is buried on the site.