May 22, 1983 – Renovated Tobey Jones Building Opens
“We celebrate a new sense of security and convenience for the deserving residents here. Smoke detectors, sprinklers, pull cords in bathrooms, a fire alarm in each apartment, private baths, separate bedrooms and an elevator. We celebrate the extra years of vitality and activity now available to most all of us a century after the dream of a retirement facility aimed primarily at restfulness. Craft rooms, individual garden spaces, exercise areas, a jacuzzi, hair-dressing facilities, a multi-purpose room for entertaining social groups, Circles of friends and family in which the resident will remain active. We celebrate elegance, beauty, sound construction and financing. We celebrate the ongoing and essential activity of the administrator, Charles Carlsson, and of the Admissions Committee.
Finally, each of us here celebrates a memory of an event or a person that epitomizes the significance of this Home in our community. For me it is Mrs. E.C. Richards whose name appeared frequently in the early history of Restholme and Tobey Jones Home. I remember her garden on Yakima Avenue and the abundance of golden King Alfred daffodils that bloomed there each spring. She knew the secret of maintaining the size and abundance of such blossoms: every other year or so she dug up the bulbs and divided them, replanting a few and packing the surplus in small paper bags to sell at the annual Bazaar, the proceeds going toward this project. Grace and Vern Day bought a bag or two on their arrival in Tacoma and planted them along the parking on Alder Street by their family Home. And the Days perpetuated the practice of watering and fertilizing and digging up and dividing and sharing the bulbs. A decade ago Gwen and Philip Phibbs came to Tacoma to live in the President’s residence on the UPS campus, inherited several bags of the Richards bulbs by way of the Day’s garden, and planted them all around Jones Hall and the rest of the campus where they continue to bloom. For me, this has become a symbol of the beauty and quality of our community, and the manner in which persons like many we remember today, have contributed from their abundance to the well-being of us all.”
