Demolition work has begun on Serenity House, the 107-year old building that once served as a home for developmentally disabled adults of Bainbridge Island.

The home closed down in March 2009 after a year of uncertainty as to how it would be operated and what would happen to the 18 residents who lived in the facility.

Since then, all 18 adults living in the home a have been relocated to other group facilities. Only two are now living in homes on the island.

The 3.37-acre property on which the house sits, once owned by the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority (KCCHA), was sold for $1.5 million on May 7 to Romerkoff Serenity LLC, which is run partly by Lynwood Center owner Steve Romein.

The closure of the facility left a hole in disabled services on Bainbridge, but that shortfall may be filled if the property is redeveloped as envisioned by Romein. He said there are plans to build a new developmentally disabled adult center on the property, which would serve some of the displaced Serenity residents.

Another adult-disabled home, to be overseen by Group Action for Peninsula People, a nonprofit based out of Gig Harbor, will also be opening later this year in the Manzanita area on Bainbridge Island.

The Serenity facility, which sits on a hill above Lynwood Center, began life as Pleasant Beach School and was later used as a sanitarium and eventually a nursing home.