1956 – 1957 – Long Wait List Necessitates a Second Home and Infirmary

At the April 1957 Board meeting, there was some discussion that an infirmary should be built as an addition to the Home which would solve the crowded conditions, present and future and would offer a major contribution in the reduction of the waiting list of 77 people by increasing the capacity of the Home when rooms now used as the Infirmary were returned to normal uses as bedrooms.

At the May 1957 Board meeting, a report was given about various homes for the Aging in the Northwest including Washington and Oregon.  Mr. Neal, Board Chair, said he felt we should wait to build the new Home until we are sure we have enough money to run both buildings as the present one is being run, and that an excess of $300,000 would be needed.  He also asked that the question about building an infirmary be deferred until they knew that money could be secured for a second building.  The entire Board agreed.

The Tacoma News Tribune reported on July 13, 1957

“The Franke Tobey Jones Home, adjoining Point Defiance Park, today revealed they were considering the possibility of a campaign to raise funds for a new structure on the institution’s grounds.  The Home for elderly people is perfectly able to operate at its present capacity without outside funds, it was explained, because of a $750,000 bequest left the institution soon after World War II.  “But” a member of the Board added, “we have a waiting list of about 75 elderly persons who are anxiously awaiting the day when they can be admitted.  Without a new building we are unable to care the one, let alone all, of them.”

At the September 1957 Board meeting Mr Neal moved that a new Home be built on the rising ground to the West, entirely separate from the present building and including an Infirmary.

In 1958 rumblings in the community about a second Home being built caused people to call and inquire about getting on the waiting list.