Blog

Our Centennial Stories Continue!

By Christine Hall

Two women besides Mrs. Jones had a great impact on the Franke Tobey Jones organization with noteworthy financial contributions. Mrs. Lillian Pratt’s 1947 bequest provided essential operating funds for 50 years, and the Tenzler Foundation, which contributed one-third of the funds necessary to add an additional building in 1962.

Here are their stories…

Mrs. Lillian Pratt

Her Story

Lillian Thomas was born in 1876, probably in Philadelphia. Near the turn of the century, she moved with her mother to Tacoma. She seems to have been a colorful character. A striking young woman, she spurned the proposal of John Pratt, a highly successful young businessman from the east, in order to marry Fred Marvin, a Tacoma lumberman. He soon sought a divorce, however claiming she denied him his conjugal rights. When she discovered that he had fathered a child by another woman, she quickly acceded to the divorce. By chance, as she was returning from Portland on the train after the divorce hearing, she found herself in the same compartment as her old flame, John Pratt, himself formerly married but recently divorced. They married a year later.

A Collector

Lillian was an inveterate collector of jewelry, fine furniture and art. She had a great love of memorabilia of the Russian Royal Family, particularly for the extraordinarily ornate and expensive gold, jewel and enamel eggs made at Christmas each year for Tzar Nicholas II by the famed jeweler, Faberge. Between 1933 and 1946, she had assembled a collection of around 475 Russian decorative arts objects, including about 170 by or attributed to Fabergé.

Chatham Manor

In 1931 she and John moved to Fredericksberg, Virginia where he had finally purchased the Home of Lillian’s dreams, Chatham Manor. The estate was ideally suited to her collection of antique furniture and her other collections, including her Faberge eggs.

Her Passing

When Lillian suddenly grew ill in 1947, her nurse confided in her best friend, Mary Wolseth, “She has everything, but she is a most unhappy woman.” No amount of wealth or material possession had brought her joy. She kept her Faberge egg collection in a glass case in her private sitting room and it is said that, after her death, men came with suitcases to pick them up and take them away in an armored car. Her huge collection of jewels was sold to build a new building in memory of her dear mother. The Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond, Virginia now houses her Faberge egg collection. John remained devoted to the end, carrying her ashes in a silver chalice on his knees all the way across the country to Tacoma to bury her, according to her wishes, alongside her mother.

Lillians Bequest to FTJ

In 1947, Mrs. Pratt made a bequest of $750,000 dollars to the Franke Tobey Jones Home. Although Mrs. Pratt had made annual donations to the Home for the previous ten years, during which time her friend, Jessie Barlow, had resided here, her large bequest came as a complete surprise. Personal knowledge of the Home, impressed by the manner in which it was run, and a keen interest in the happiness of elderly people resulted in the trust. And, although Lillian lived in Tacoma with her mother from 1893 to 1916, no evidence shows that she and Franke ever met. In fact, it was apparently something of a chance decision. She had given a collection of antique lace to a museum in Seattle some years before but, on a subsequent visit, discovered that her gift was not on display. In pique, she changed her will and dropped the museum from her list of recipients. The Franke Tobey Jones Home was the beneficiary.

Her bequest to FTJ, though a surprise, was a godsend. The interest from the trust was added to the endowment fund, which was used to run the Home. The additional income allowed the Home to acquire adjoining land, which brought the extent of the grounds to forty acres. Lillian had made her bequest as a memorial to her mother, Susan Elton Thomas, and she had bequeathed it specifically as a 50-year income trust for the operations of the Home. It was specified in the Franke Tobey Jones Home – Susan Elton Thomas Memorial Trust that “with these funds Franke Tobey Jones Home should be operated as much as possible as a Home and not as an institution, and that Franke Tobey Jones must maintain its charitable nature and tax-exempt status.”

Mrs. Flora Tenzler-Tenzler Foundation

FTJ Board Contemplated A Second Building

In late 1958, when the Board contemplated a second building for the Franke Tobey Jones Home, the plan to raise the $430,000 necessary was to find twenty-six individuals in Tacoma willing to contribute as a memorial to their parents. After two or three years of effort, this plan failed. The Board of Directors was in a dilemma. Lillian Pratt’s bequest to the Home in 1947 specified that the money be used for the operation of the Home (not for building a new Home). Yet, the endowment fund was much larger than was needed to operate the Home at its present size.

Tenzler Foundation Gift

Then, the Board was notified that Mrs. Flora Tenzler, a life-long resident of Tacoma, left the larger part of her entire estate in trust to be used for religious, educational, scientific and charitable purposes. The Tenzler Foundation contributed one-third of the funds necessary to add an additional building to the Home. The income from Mrs. Pratt’s generous bequest would see to the day-to-day operations of the Home. Therefore, other monies from the endowment fund could be committed to the building of the extension. Less than a third of the remaining cost of the extension would be outstanding. A plea for help brought many smaller, but still generous, donations and soon the funds for the new building were all in hand. Specifically, ten individuals greatly contributed to the fund drive.

At the October 9, 1964, Board meeting, it was expressed, on behalf of the hundreds and thousands of present and future residents, the Board’s heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Lillian Pratt, Flora Tenzler and the ten individual donors whose contributions would be specified for the new Health Care Center.

Construction of New Building Scheduled

The $1,200,000 that the new building would cost had been raised without a penny being paid by either state or federal governments.

On January 24, 1962, the Tacoma News Tribune reported “Construction of a new $1 million [building] for the Franke Tobey Jones Homes, more than doubling the capacity of the well-known retirement Home adjoining Point Defiance Park, is scheduled to start soon. Franke Neal, President of the Board which administers the 35-year-old facility, announced today that the Board has signed a contract with Macdonald Building Co. for construction of the unit. It will contain living quarters for 70 senior citizens, adjoining the existing Home at 5340 N. Bristol Street. Completion is expected within a year. Silas Nelsen, Tacoma architect, designed the new building in a modified Tudor Gothic style similar to the present building. The structure will be a separate entity with its own dining hall, kitchen and modern infirmary staffed by registered nurses and the Home’s own physician.”

Note: In later years, at the request of the Tenzler Foundation because of the numerous annual financial requests they received from throughout the community, the Tenzler name was dropped from the building.