Lakeview House Skilled Nursing and Residential Care Facility was the site of a historical reunion Thursday, June 5, as Marion F. Bergman met with Lakeview’s Director of Social Services Joseph S. Tavitian to compare notes on the facility’s storied past.
Bergman’s family bought the property in 1946. Her parents, James and Florence Sexton, bought what had been the Kenoza Lake Country Club and developed it first into a rest home, and then a full-fledged nursing home, calling it Kenoza Lake Health Resort. Before the property was used as a country club it belonged to the Shattuck family. Marble fireplaces and turned mahogany staircases adorned the luxury estate.
“The place has quite an interesting history,” said Bergman. Bergman’s personal history is inextricably entwined with that of Lakeview House. She graduated from the Beverly Hospital School of Nursing in 1954 after completing years of training, and returned to join the professional staff at her family’s facility. She eventually transitioned to an educational position, teaching nurses’ aides at facilities in the Merrimack Valley.
Bergman’s family sold Kenoza Lake Health Resort in 1958. In 1983 Jon D. Guarino acquired the property and named it Lakeview House. In 2001 he purchased Baker-Katz Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Both Lakeview House and Baker-Katz remain family-owned and operated by Guarino. Bergman was pleased to note that the facilities retain the comfort and atmosphere she remembered. “It’s like a big extended family,” she said.
Lakeview House Skilled Nursing and Residential Care Facility provides 26 licensed skilled care beds and 65 residential care beds.