Both Eureka Springs homes where I have lived are very close to the road with kitchen windows where you see people passing by about eight feet away. Homes similarly close to the road with windows overlooking the street are common here. I have enjoyed a view to the street, especially during the pandemic when I could get social interaction by walking outside to talk to friends while staying a safe distance apart.
Recently I visited Port Townsend, Washington. A friend here who used to live in the area told me that I would find it a lot like Eureka Springs… progressive, innovative, lots of artists, historic buildings, and beautiful scenery.
While visiting, I got a tour of Quimper Village, a co-housing community for senior adults, from two of the founders, Carolyn and Jack Salmon. Groups of homes share common walls and are located across a landscaped pathway from another group of homes. The Salmons’ kitchen window faces that of a neighbor’s window across the sidewalk, and it was designed that way.
“We clustered the houses deliberately to have more community interaction,” Carolyn said. She is president of the board that includes all residents. “We are close to our neighbors and can interact with them more easily. In order to do that, we moved the garages, parking area, mailboxes, an art studio and a shop to one end of the community. That means you have to walk to those areas. In the process, you are likely to see others. It is one way of enabling people to interact easily. We wanted to be able to see and talk to our neighbors.”
The idea germinated when a couple who were friends of the Salmons wanted to live in a different way from a single-family home or a standard condominium. They wanted a place where community came first. Some of the group that ended up founding Quimper Village did research into senior housing and hired architects Chuck Durrett and Katie McCamant to hold a workshop called Senior Cohousing Study One.
“A group of about thirty people spent a day together using this workbook as our model, and went through the process of developing a community,” Carolyn said. “The founding five households started looking for property and put up initial the money. The group grew, selected a contractor, and got the construction mortgage. Once we had the property secured, we hired Chuck as design architect and a local architect in town to interface with the city for permits.”
The homes are highly energy efficient. Walls between neighbors have a dead space filled with insulation, and there are sound barriers in the attic. She has never heard anyone complain about noise from neighbors. Mini split heat pumps provide heating and cooling. Two-by-six wood framing allows extra space for insulation. They also have excellent ventilation.
There are 28 houses ranging in size from 910 to 1,335 square feet, 16 garages and three carports. One of my favorite amenities is an airy, comfortable common house that includes three guest rooms, a laundry and bathrooms to provide for guests. There is a large room with a fireplace where the group gathers for dinners, holiday celebrations and other activities. Once a week, a meal is prepared by volunteers in the community.
“That is very expressly a part of co-housing, the opportunity to sit down and be able to have conversation with people,” Carolyn said. “We stopped community meals altogether for almost a year during the initial part of Covid. But once we were able to get folks vaccinated, we started getting back together outside. Now we are having meals once a week inside and have holiday activities, often potlucks.”
Quimper Village uses dynamic governance, a psychologically safe environment based on consent rather than majority voting.
“People who are adamantly independent are not going to be attracted to co-housing,” Carolyn said. “They want to make their own decisions and not think about how it affects other people. People attracted to co-housing are more likely to want to maintain good relations and make decisions about how we will live as a community. I have a say in the decisions the community makes, in how we will work together, and how we will spend our money as a community. And all my neighbors also have a say so we can find the best solutions.”