Shuksan Healthcare Center’s history is as charming as the residential neighborhood in which is resides. Located on James Street in the York district of Bellingham, Shuksan sits on property that once housed Lincoln School, an elementary school constructed in 1892. The school (pictured below) held grades one through six and eventually closed its doors in 1952.

In 1954, the property was traded for 136 acres of the district’s Gordon L. Carter Environmental Education site on the south end of Lake Whatcom.

The current building that houses Shuksan Healthcare Center on 1530 James Street was originally constructed in 1959, opening its doors as Shuksan Convalescent Center in 1960 (pictured below).

The facility transitioned service lines along with ownership over the next several decades, but always maintained “Shuksan” in its name. Local businessman Jim Roe (dba JK&L Inc.), who had previously co-owned the facility with a business partner, purchased the facility outright in 2001.

At that point, Shuksan Healthcare Center transitioned from a nursing home to a skilled nursing facility, offering comprehensive rehabilitation and skilled nursing services. The facility underwent an expansion renovation in 2010, adding an additional patient care wing, state-of-the-art rehabilitation center and updated kitchen.

Today, the 52-bed Shuksan Healthcare Center remains one of very few locally-owned skilled nursing facilities in the area and is the only Eden Alternative facility in Whatcom County.

And the rest, as they say, is history…