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Mary Gale Apartments is named for Mary Green Ayer Gale, the wife of Dr. Amos G. Gale, a prominent Manchester doctor. Dr. Gale died 20 years before Mary; their only daughter died when she was only 20. Mary Gale suffered from a chronic illness (probably tuberculosis). She was also a very lonely person. Because of this, she was sympathetic to other women who suffered a similar fate, and so she provided in her will for an endowment that would be used for the creation of a "home for aged and destitute females." This became the Gale Home, which opened its doors in 1893 in a wooden building on this site. The original building was demolished, and this large Colonial Revival brick building was built in 1906, a two and a half story brick structure of over 16,000 square feet.
Between 2003 and 2005 the Gale Home was redeveloped as the Gale Home Apartments by the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority, adding two wings and doubling the building's size to provide 37 new congregate living apartments and various other senior services.
This project received a Preservation Award by Manchester Historic Association and an Excellence in Construction Award from the Associated Builders and Contractors.
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