Friendly’s Ice Cream Monticello!

Friendly’s Ice Cream Monticello!

Friendly's Ice Cream Monticello!

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Finally there is something the East Coast has that the Midwest and West Coast just aren’t lucky enough to have at their fingertips - the ability to pig out on some of the best ice cream one could ever hope to wrap their tongue around. Yes, read it and weep. The rich goodness of Friendly’s ice cream is only available on the East Coast from Maine to Florida.

It took a lot of ingenuity back in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression to start a business. Especially one that could be considered a frivolous non-necessity. But brothers Prestley and Curtis Blake of Springfield, Massachusetts, understood the need for little pleasures that would lessen the impact of struggle during those bleak years, so they opened Friendly, an ice cream store with $547 initial capital from their parents, where they sold double-dipped cones for five cents each. It was so popular that by 1940 they opened a second store in West Springfield. Though there was a pause for closing during World War II, when they reopened after the war, by 1951 they already had 10 stores. By the time the brothers sold the operation to Hershey Foods Corporation in 1979 for $162 million and retired, there were 500 stores operating from the Northeast through the Mid-Atlantic.

Like all highly motivated business men and women, retirement isn’t for sitting down and quitting, instead it’s an opportunity for projects they didn’t have time for while working. That’s what Prestley, known as "Pres" has done throughout his retirement with a goal of finishing one ambitious project by each birthday. However, his biggest dream was to reproduce Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia estate, Monticello. And that he has done, with the completion of the mansion coordinating with his 100th birthday! Though it connects to his own 80-acre property via a horse trail, the plan was never to live there himself but to sell it. "I want to have a good neighbor," he said. Pres has always considered Monticello to be "the country’s most architecturally beautiful residence."

Located in Somers, Connecticut, and with nearly 10,000 square feet of living space, the residence has a total of 11 rooms with five bedrooms and five full and four half baths sited on over nine acres. Exterior hand-made brick was imported from Virginia and soffits were custom molded to match Jefferson’s carved wooden soffits. The balustrades around the rooftop are also designed to look exactly like those at the original Monticello. The roof is a composite material made to look like slate. The interior was designed for modern living standards, however, homages exist throughout including the blue sky ceiling mural in the entryway that recalls the skylight in Jefferson’s dome room. Jefferson used shutters for window coverings, but in the case of the replica, provisions were engineered instead to accommodate today’s preferences. The new owner will have the opportunity to landscape in the Jeffersonian style with a 1700’s style "fruitery" (fruit orchard), vegetable and flower gardens or something in keeping with modern style. Regardless of style, one thing is certain: No one can drive by or enter this stunning replica without remembering and appreciating the contributions Thomas Jefferson gave the country in architecture and horticulture - just as Prestley Blake would have wanted. For more information.

Connecticut replica of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, conceived and built by co-founder of Friendly’s Ice Cream, Prestley Blake, is now for sale. Priced at $6.5 million, at cost.

Source: sherrimilkie.williampitt.com