Mason Manor
1424 Admiral Court, Green Bay, Brown County
Date of Construction: 1972
Architect: Nichols & Barone, Inc.; Builder: Selmer Company
The Mason Manor apartment building, built in 1972 in a contemporary brutalist style, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places due to its association with and contribution to Green Bay’s social history, particularly as this relates to the community’s approach to promoting the welfare of society through providing adequate and affordable housing for its elderly and impoverished citizens.
Mason Manor, designed by the architectural firm of Nichols & Barone, Inc., is a physical product that stands at a conceptual nexus of the forces of highway construction, suburban sprawl, urban renewal, declining availability of affordable housing, expanding public policy, and economic factors. Specifically, highway construction generated suburban sprawl and the construction of suburban shopping centers. Urban renewal resulted in the destruction of older housing units that had previously been among the few housing options available to low-income senior citizens. Public policy at the national level in the form of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 created new opportunities for communities to better serve this segment of society. Mason Manor relates to this public policy and the formation of the current Green Bay Housing Authority in 1968, which was created for the purpose of addressing the housing needs of low-income senior citizens at a time when affordable housing throughout the city was being razed to make way for urban renewal and private developments. Today, Mason Manor continues to be managed by the Green Bay Housing Authority. |