Criterion A: Politics/Government, Community Planning and Development
Criterion C: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1967-1969
Local Level of Significance
In 1967, with federal funding and federal design direction from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Portland Housing Authority (PHA) began construction of Franklin Towers, a high-rise, low-income senior housing complex. The apartment tower is locally significant under Criterion A for Politics/ Government. Constructed fifteen years after the first federal program targeting senior housing was instituted, Franklin Towers was both the first and largest local example of federal subsidy for low-income senior housing. Franklin Towers is locally significant under Criterion A for Community Planning for its relationship to Portland's use of federal Urban Renewal funding for "slum clearance," (which exacerbated the citys need for affordable low-income senior housing), and development of the Franklin Arterial to connect downtown to Interstate 295, then under construction. Franklin Towers is also eligible under Criterion C for Architecture as a good example of its type and period of construction. The mid-century high-rise apartment building followed federal policy guidelines for senior public housing and embodies many of the building types character defining features. At sixteen stories, it was Maines tallest residential building when built and it remains a good example of a high-rise building in Maine. A small wood-framed garage built on the property in the 1990s is an associated noncontributing building. The period of significance begins with the year of design and initial construction and ends the year construction was completed, 1967-1969.