Monticello replica is 'swan song' for 100-year-old ice cream tycoon
There are now two Monticellos.
There’s Thomas Jefferson’s famed estate in Charlottesville, Virginia -- the one that appears on the back of the nickel.
And then there’s the one that ice cream built.
S. Prestley “Pres” Blake -- co-founder of the Friendly's restaurant chain and ice cream company on the East Coast -- built a near-exact exterior replica in Connecticut as what he calls his "swan song," his last gesture as he approaches death. While that may seem a bit morbid, Blake just turned 100 years old, and frankly, he wasn’t sure he’d make it that long.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)
The interior of Blake's neoclassic abode pragmatically breaks from tradition—no basement kitchen or isolated privies for bathrooms—but you wouldn’t know to look at it from the outside. Blake, who considers Monticello “the country’s most architecturally beautiful residence,” even insisted on using all the same materials Jefferson used to create the exterior of the home—right down to bricks that are handmade.
He told the Hartford (Conn.) Courant that the builder was promised a special incentive to complete the project quickly: a big bonus if he finished before Blake died.
LaPlante Construction wrapped up in time for Blake’s birthday party in October, held at his Monticello replica in Somers, Connecticut. Blake's actual 100th birthday was just last week, but he and his wife celebrated early with family and friends because they spend winters in Florida.
Blake and brother Curtis started Friendly Ice Cream in 1935, right in the middle of the Great Depression, with just $547, he wrote in his autobiography.
Their little ice cream shop grew into a restaurant chain 500 locations strong. (Last week, for his 100th birthday, some locations sold ice cream cones for a nickel, the price he and his brother originally charged for a double-dip.) In 1979, the brothers sold the company to Hershey's for $162 million and Blake retired to explore the world in the finest cars.
But at the turn of this century, he came out of retirement to save Friendly's from a management team that purchased the company from Hershey's.
(Click here or on a photo for a slideshow of the 100-year-old ice cream tycoon's Monticello replica.)
“Did I want to come out of a comfortable retirement and, at age 86, get all suited up again for a fight? No. I was in good health, with no worries to speak of and plenty of money in the bank. I had -- and still have -- a wonderful wife. I had two nice homes, a yacht, a barn full of vintage Rolls-Royces, and enough grandkids to keep me on my toes,” he wrote in his autobiography.
Still, he felt his “baby” was threatened by managers that weren't as dedicated to quality burgers, fries and ice creams as he was, and he wanted Friendly's back.
It cost him.
“If somebody had told me back then that the whole thing would wind up taking five years and cost almost eleven million dollars, including legal fees -- or, for that matter, that the whole adventure would be taught today as a case study in shareholder activism at the Harvard Business School -- well, I’d have said, 'Friend, your cone is dripping,'” he wrote.
Now with his own management team in place, Blake splits his time between Florida and Connecticut, sails and "dabbles in Rolls-Royces," he says.
With all that behind him, Monticello 2.0 was born. It’s on the market now for $6.5 million. (He always meant to sell it, though not for a profit; he thinks of it as a kind of gift to the community, as our slideshow explains.)
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Related video from President Obama's tour of Jefferson's Monticello earlier this year, accompanied by the president of France:
