When Gil Wolf saw the apartment that he and his wife, Kathryn, would be living in at Royalton Place on Southeast King Road in Milwaukie, he recognized it right away.

It was, in fact, the same apartment his mother, Audilight Wolf, lived in from 1978 to 1985, when she died at the age of 95.

The only difference was that the dwelling had been remodeled this year, and a separate bedroom added to what had been a studio apartment.

“My mom was very happy here,” Wolf said, who has lived at Royalton with his wife for two months. “It is comfortable and convenient and we have the assurance that every day everything will be done for us. The staff is fabulous here, and if anything needs to be done, George, the maintenance man, is here to help.”

The Royal Marc

Audilight Wolf was born in South Dakota in 1890, and the family, including Gil, moved to Mt. Angel in 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression. He and Kathryn were married in 1947, and they moved to Portland in 1948.

Gil pursued various careers, including working at the Piggly Wiggly market in Sellwood for four years and at an industrial laundry for 22 years.

He started his own automotive supply business in 1978, and still sells supplies to some of the accounts from that business, he noted.

Gil and his wife moved to Milwaukie in 1952, and all seven of their children attended Ardenwald Elementary School and Milwaukie High School.

Meanwhile, his mother and father had moved to Lake Oswego, where his mom lived alone for years after her husband died. Eventually it became evident that she needed to be in assisted living, and in 1978 she moved into the facility that was called Royal Marc, at that time. It became Royalton Place in 2005.

Fast forward to 2012, when Gil and Kathryn drove by Royalton Place one day and noticed that it had been remodeled.

“We decided to go in and see the place, and then we talked to Pat and put our name on a waiting list,” Gil said. “A week or two later there was an opening, so we had an estate sale and moved in here.”

One last fact about his mother, Wolf said, when she died in 1985, she left behind 125 descendants.

Remodel transforms

Holly Hildenbrand, the Kingswood coordinator in the memory care unit at Royalton Place in Milwaukie, said staff and residents are loving the remodeled facility.

“The residents went through this with really good spirits,” Hildenbrand said. “They enjoyed watching all the workers. Every time they came down in the morning they never knew who or what they would see in the lobby. The construction staff became a part of the family.”

The staff really likes the new remodel, said Pat Holahan, Royalton Place's executive director.

The project began with an eight-week elevator remodel in August 2010. The interior remodel began in February 2011 and was finished in March 2012.

“We got new carpets, new paint, new furniture, new dining room tables, new appliances and countertops,” Hildenbrand said. “We added a theater with seating and a flat-screen TV, and a brand new activities bus with lift access.”

Holahan noted that all the independent-living apartments have kitchenettes, and residents in assisted living and memory care units were given big, new bathrooms with roll-in showers.

“Plus, the memory care unit is a secured unit with its own beautiful courtyard,” she said.

Plans for the future include a raised-bed garden for the memory-care unit, so residents can stand up to garden, she said.

“We invite everyone to stop in and tour the new community,” Hildenbrand said. “Royalton Place is a prototype for Milwaukie; we are the first to have individual, assisted living and memory care in one place. We almost re-invented the wheel — there’s nothing else like this in Milwaukie. People walk in and they are amazed at the transition from Royal Marc to Royalton Place.”

Fact Box

Royalton Place

5555 S.E. King Road, Milwaukie

503-653-1854

On the Web at royaltonplaceseniorliving.com.