In 1972 a small group of volunteers met at the Kerby Centre in Calgary to discuss forming a group to develop housing for Seniors. Pat Allen at the Kerby Centre helped by giving advice and providing space to meet and organize. In 1973 the Elder Statesmen Group was incorporated under the Societies Act.

The early members formed a delegation and went to meet government officials in Edmonton to let them know that seniors no longer wanted bachelor suites. This delegation recommended that the smallest apartment for seniors should have at least one bedroom. The government was listening. Thereafter no more bachelor suites were built.

At the same time Isobel Halvorson, one of the Elder Statesmen Group volunteers, suggested that she would like to live in her same neighbourhood, but in a smaller living unit that would be more manageable than her home. The Elder Statesmen Group came up with the idea of building “infill’ projects on 50 foot wide lots in existing neighborhoods with six suites in each building. The Alberta government agreed and built four of these projects for the Elder Statesmen Group to manage.

At about the same time the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation agreed to finance two apartment buildings that would be owned by the Elder Statesmen Group. Alice Thompson, the President of the Elder Statesmen Group and also a volunteer, searched over forty sites to find the location for these two projects. They became Bow Claire and Becker Manor.