Earle's Retreat, Falmouth

A steel-line engraving of Earle's Retreat, Falmouth, for The Builder magazine of October 22, 1870. 

The Earle's Retreat, Falmouth, was established by Mr. George Earle for the benefit of, as the accompanying article states, "aged natives of Falmouth or for residents during a period of not less than twenty years." Thirty two rooms were created by the design of Mr Alexander Lauder (architect) for "married couples, widowers or widows, bachelors or spinsters." Each room, the piece declares, was "light and airy, [...] fitted with closets, and comfortably furnished."

Mr George Earle was born in Falmouth in 1807. After several years working as an architect and builder in Cornwall, he moved to Philadelphia with his wife, Mary Devonshire, where he ran a successful business. After accruing some considerable profit, he wanted to provide some relief for the elderly in his home town of Falmouth, and commissioned the Barnstaple-based architect Mr Alexander Lauder to design an almshouse. The building included a chapel, in the tradition of the medieval chantries, and was constructed in the Gothic Revival style. Mr Earle remained a resident of Philadelphia, and so left the administration of the building in the hands of his brother, Frederick Hobart Earle, and other trustees. He also left money for the maintenance of the building "in perpetuity." Today, Earle's Retreat still provides sheltered housing for local residents aged 55 or above. A plaque in the residents' lounge still reads:

"Earle's Retreat, Falmouth. Founded AD 1869 by George Earle, a native of Falmouth, but a resident in and citizen of the United States of America; with the object of providing therein a free residence for natives or inhabitants of Falmouth of good character (particularly such as have led honest, sober and industrious lives) and of advanced age, whose incomes are so small that the payment of rent places it out of their power to have proper necessaries and comforts in their declining years."

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