When Cedar Park Place celebrated its 30th anniversary last week, one special guest was Mary Adams, a resident of the housing complex for 30 years.

"She has been here since Day One," said Jana Murray, manager of Cedar Park Place.

Now 81 years old, Adams lives independently in her one-bedroom apartment, decorated with some of her own handiwork. She is an active participant in the frequent dinners and coffees held at the Cedar Park Place Community Center, Manager Jana Murray said. "She makes angel food cake for most of the activities — she makes a really good angel food cake."

The Dominican Sisters of Great Bend — now the Dominican Sisters of Peace, always intended that the Community Center would be at the heart of the housing complex they built, Murray said. Ten buildings house 63 ground-level apartments.

Cedar Park Place, named for the cedar trees on the property, was built by the Dominicans to provide independent housing, primarily for the low income elderly and disabled.

"It’s been very nice here and I have enjoyed it," Adams said. "The people are nice to me."

In October of 1981, Kansas Gov. John Carlin visited the residents of the new housing complex. Among the occupants was Iva Mosier, a woman whom Carlin had met that summer as he inspected her previous home, which was damaged by the flood that swept through town. And in December of 1981, Great Bend’s Welcome Wagon had one of its biggest days when its representative came to the community center with gifts. By that time Cedar Park Place had 75 residents, and 72 attended.