50 years ago: St. Johns Cathedral receives federal loan for apartments

Monday, July 21, 12:38 PM EDT

Compiled by Max Marbut

The project, Cathedral Manor, was sponsored by St. Johns Cathedral. The site for the building was bounded by Ashley, Church, Market and Newnan streets. The property was at the time occupied by 16 wood-frame buildings, mostly multistory rooming houses.

The 50-year loan would finance acquisition of the property and construction of the building. The loan was granted, at 3.58 percent interest, by the Senior Citizen Housing Loan Program of the Community Facilities Administration.

Monthly rental rates for the unfurnished apartments were set at $72 for the 166 efficiency units and $96 for the 70 one-bedroom units and $135 for the 11 two-bedroom units, said attorney John D. Corse, who was chairman of the building committee for St. Johns Cathedral. The rest of the apartments would be used for maintenance personnel and rental rates included utilities, he said.

Preliminary plans called for a building of reinforced concrete. Inside, the design included a hobby room, a snack bar and reading, television and lounge rooms. A laundry room also would be available and it was pointed out the building would be air-conditioned.

Cathedral Manor had been planned in Downtown, Corse said, to make shopping, recreational and church facilities convenient for the residents so theycould remain in the mainstream of the community.

By providing this housing specifically for elderly people, the church is nurturing its responsibility to the community by offering safe, convenient and economical housing.

Along with our new Sunday school building, construction of this project is an indication of our confidence in the future and vitality of Jacksonvilles downtown area, said the Very Rev. Robert R. Parks, dean of St. Johns Cathedral.

A delegation of Eighth Street business owners seeking City Commission endorsement of making the cross-town roadway part of the state primary road system so it could be improved were told by Mayor-Commissioner Haydon Burns, the Democratic Party nominee for governor, they probably wouldnt get such a state action any time soon.

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50 years ago: St. Johns Cathedral receives federal loan for apartments