Celebrating 40 years at Noble Horizons but still looking to the future

SALISBURY — The retirement community at Noble Horizons is such an integral part of life here in Salisbury that many people, when told that the facility’s got a major anniversary coming up, assume the number is up around 100.Actually, this year marks 40 years that Noble Horizons has been offering safe, gracious and supportive living for retirees on its spacious 110 acre campus on Cobble Road. Noble is celebrating the landmark with a special exhibit at the Salisbury Historical Society, opening with a party on April 27 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the society’s Academy Building on Main Street (across from Town Hall). The show there will have photos, memorabilia and a little bit of history.For many area residents, the history of Noble Horizons is a little bit like the history of one’s own parents: fascinating, important, intertwined with our own lives but something we never really take the time to ask about.There’s the name, for one thing, and the small print on the sign at the entrance that indicates Noble is part of an organization called Church Homes.Noble Horizons was not a project of a benevolent church group; and the word noble does not necessarily indicate the character of the residents of the center or the center’s mission.Noble Horizons is named for the couple who left a legacy of $8.5 million to be used to create moderately priced rental housing for people over the age of 65.John Noble was an early employee of (and investor in) General Motors. He and his wife, Ethel (known as “Gee”), moved to Sharon for their retirement, drawn here in part because of Gee’s love of the plants and animals in this part of the world. Their estate on Route 41 in Sharon was called Blue Horizons.When the Nobles died (John in 1960, Gee in 1969), they had no children and no close relatives. They left a large bequest in the hands of Lakeville attorney Thomas Wagner, stipulating that the interest from the $8.5 million legacy would be used to to create “attractive apartments to be rented at prices within the reach of retired, middle-income people” (according to a July 1971 article about the planned facility in The Lakeville Journal). Wagner’s partner in fulfilling the Nobles’ bequest was his wife, Fran. She had heard of a new retirement community being built near Hartford by the UCC Church that was called Avery Heights. The man in charge of that project was the charismatic Lowell Davis. Davis was in the middle of completing the project at Avery and needed additional funds. An agreement was made whereby some of the Noble bequest would be used at Avery Heights (notably the intermediate care facility there, named the Noble Building) and then Davis would come to Salisbury and help bring to life the community at Noble Horizons (combining the Noble name with the name of their property, Blue Horizons).After some searching, a piece of property for the new elder village was found, on land owned by a longtime Salisbury resident, attorney and former first selectman named John “Jake” Rand (father of the town’s current first selectman, Curtis Rand).The architectural firm of Jeter and Cook was instructed to design residences that felt home-like and that nestled unobtrusively into their natural surroundings. The first 20 cottages were completed in June 1972. The facility has grown and expanded slowly over the years, but has maintained its architectural and esthetic integrity while also adapting to the changing needs and complexities of caring for seniors as they “age in place.”One reason Noble has managed to change while staying true to the original vision is Eileen Mulligan, who came to Avery Heights in 1974 to do a six-month adminstrative internship that she needed to complete her degree in hospital management from Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn. Davis met Mulligan while she was touring Noble and immediately hired her to be the first full-time administrator at Noble. She is still at the helm as administrator and chief operating officer; and, looking through old photographs of residents from years gone by, she still remembers everyone’s names and the details of their lives.Also a continuing presence at Noble is Barbara Tobias, who was hired as a social worker in 1976 (she is still there now as director of admissions and social services). Noble has changed and evolved in so many ways, big and small, that it can’t all be included in a newspaper article. But in the end, Noble is all about change and forward movement, not nostalgia. Anyone interested in learning about the past is invited to the Academy Building’s exhibit. Anyone interested in learning what’s in store for the future can go to Noble’s website at www.noblehorizons.org. And anyone interested in taking a walk around the lovely grounds is invited to the opening of this summer’s invitational sculpture show on May 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. Artists featured this year are Joy Brown, Michael McLaughlin, Michael Melle, Stanley E. Marcus, David Colbert, Karl Saliter, David Skora, Richard Griggs, Liz Rudey and Serena Weld Granbery. The grounds are open to visitors daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. until October.