Historic Aldridge Apartments
Full of Memories and Convenience
The Aldridge
Apartments in downtown Shawnee provide affordable housing for senior
citizens.
Seated in the lobby of his apartment building, a man with
buzzed salt-and-pepper hair sees a busy swirl of men in tailored
suits and ladies wearing fashionable dresses paired with matching
hats and gloves.
Doormen in red
uniforms open the wide double-doors for out-of-town guests, and a
group of junior high boys on their lunch break race upstairs to the
KGFF radio station.
Slivers of conversations escape from a row of eight wooden
phone booths only to be swallowed up by the loud din of voices and
laughter that fills the room.
Seventy-five year old Bill Davis is seeing the lobby of the
Aldridge Apartments as he remembers it more than 65 years ago during
the 1940s. Back then it was the lobby of the nine-story Aldridge
Hotel - Shawnee’s premier hotel and the highlight of social life.
Honeymooners stayed there, and special events of all kinds were
celebrated in its glamorous grand ballroom.
“There was a lot of prestige in staying here,” Bill said of
the brick hotel.
Unfortunately, as Shawnee’s downtown area became less
prosperous so did the Aldridge Hotel, the town’s tallest building.
“I was scared they were going to bulldoze this place down,”
said Bill, who has been in and out of the Aldridge Hotel building
since he was 10 years old.
ERC Properties began plans for a $10 million transformation
of the building in 2003. OHFA’s award of $500,000 in Affordable
Housing Tax Credits per year for the next 10 years helped renovate
the Aldridge Hotel’s more than 200 rooms into 61 low-income
apartments for senior citizens.
Great steps were taken to preserve the historic integrity of
the Aldridge Hotel. During construction of its modern apartments,
many details of the building were either refurbished or created like
the original. Its carpet, lighting and paint reflect the styles of
the period when it was built.
“The people that renovated this building did such a super
job,” he said. “So much is still here.”
In June of 2005, Bill had a mild stroke which prevents him
from walking distances of more than two or three blocks. He realized
he needed to live somewhere close to everything he needed.
The Aldridge Apartments, located in downtown Shawnee,
provided the convenience and proximity he desired. Next to its lobby
is a barbershop, and nearby are a grocery store, a bank and
restaurants.
“Most everything I wanted to go see or get to I could do from
downtown,” he said.
In November, Bill moved into a one-bedroom apartment on the
seventh floor. Bill said what impresses him the most about his new
home is that each month he writes a single check for $475 that
covers his rent and all of his utilities, except telephone and
cable.
No other place he knew of provided the convenience of all
bills paid and still left him with 40 percent of his Social Security
check.
Modern conveniences draped in nostalgic living is the
trademark of the Aldridge Apartments, a place where trips down
memory lane happen just outside every tenant’s door.
“Once they get [a
restaurant], I don’t see why I’ll ever have to leave,” Bill said.
Toll Free: (800) 256-1489