Clark Retirement Community opened in 1906 in the former Sherman Street home of Melvin J. and Emily Clark and was originally called the M.J. Clark Memorial Home in the Clark's honor. There were ten residents by the end of the first year. Melvin was a farmer, retail grocer and lumberman who began his career in Solon Township, later moving to Cedar Springs and then Grand Rapids. He built at least one commercial building in downtown Grand Rapids. Emily Jewell Clark played a major role in the founding or development of the D.A. Blodgett Home for Children, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, local suffrage activities and the Starr Commonwealth.

The Clark Home was originally administered by the West Michigan Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in response to many years of concern for the care of elderly, or “super-annuated,” ministers. Among the first local facilities to provide a retirement experience, the home was open to Methodist ministers, their wives or widows and other area elderly. Since its opening the organization has grown and expanded, though the Clark Retirement Community of 2007 occupies the same twenty acres as the original Clark farm that surrounded the Clark residence. The organization celebrated its centennial in 2006 with a series of events and with the publication of Caring Community: The History of Clark Retirement Community by Jennifer Morrison and Gordon Olson.