Alta Rockefeller Prentice (April 12, 1871 ? June 21, 1962) was an American philanthropist and socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller .

Early life [ edit ]

Alta was born on April 12, 1871, in Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, Ohio . ^[1] She was the third daughter of John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937) and Laura Celestia "Cettie" (nee Spelman) Rockefeller (1839–1915). Among her siblings was Bessie Rockefeller , who married psychologist Charles Augustus Strong ; Edith Rockefeller , who married Harold Fowler McCormick ; and John D. Rockefeller Jr. , who married Abby Aldrich and Martha Baird . Her father was a founder of the Standard Oil Company and, later in life, became a prominent philanthropist. ^[1]

Inheritance [ edit ]

In 1917, her father gifted 12,000 shares of Standard Oil of Indiana (today known as Amoco ), worth approximately $9,000,000 (equivalent to $214,036,364 today), to a trust fund with Alta receiving the income except for $30,000 directed to her husband. By 1930, the original 12,000 shares had turned into 356,000 shares through stock splits and dividends paid with stocks. ^[1]

Married life [ edit ]

On January 17, 1901, Alta was married to Colonel Ezra Parmalee Prentice (1863–1955) ^[2] by the Rev. Dr. William Faunce , the President of Brown University and former pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. ^[3] The wedding, which took place on the wide landing of the staircase in the main hall of her parents brownstone in Manhattan located at 4 West 54th Street , had originally been planned as an elaborate church wedding but was changed to a quiet affair at the Rockefeller home due to the recent death of Alta's young nephew, John Rockefeller McCormick, from scarlet fever . ^[3] Prentice, an attorney, was the son of Sartell Prentice and Mary Adeline (nee Isham) Prentice and his maternal grandfather was Pierpoint Isham , a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and a direct descendant of Rev. James Pierpont , the founder of Yale University . ^[4] His uncle, Edward Swift Isham , was the law partner of Robert Todd Lincoln . ^[5] Together, Alta and Ezra lived at 5 West 53rd Street in Manhattan (bought by her father for the couple as a wedding present) and were the parents of three children:

• John Rockefeller Prentice (1902–1972), a Yale and Yale Law School graduate who became a cattle breeder. ^[6]
• Mary Adeline Prentice (1907–1981), a 1934 Vassar College graduate who married Benjamin Davis Gilbert (1907?1992). ^[7]
• Spelman Prentice (1911–2000), founder of the Prenalta Corporation which ran oil and gas operations. ^{[8] [9]}

She founded Alta House ( c.  1900 ), a settlement house in Little Italy in Cleveland , Ohio , which is named in her honor. ^{[10] [11]}

In 1910, Alta and Ezra bought 1,400 acres (5.7 km ² ) of land near Williamstown , Massachusetts . ^[12] Elm Tree House, the Prentices' 72-room summer home on Mount Hope Farm, was completed in 1928 at a cost of $400,000 (equivalent to $7,097,674 today), and their estate became "the most valuable estate in the Berkshire Hills ." ^[1] In the 1930s and 1940s, several geneticists were employed by Ezra to develop more profitable farm animals, particularly cattle and poultry . At that time, Mount Hope Farm was one of the most outstanding experimental farms in the United States . ^[2]

Alta died at Midtown Hospital in New York City in June 1962 at the age of 91, the last surviving child of John D. Rockefeller. ^[1] She was interred at Dellwood Cemetery in Manchester Village, Vermont . ^[13] She left her New York City brownstone to her neighbor, the Museum of Modern Art , who tore it down and built a new wing of the museum. Her Berkshires property was willed to New York 's Lenox Hill Hospital . Shortly thereafter, Elm Tree House was purchased by its current owner, Williams College . ^{[14] [15]}

References [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Alta Rockefeller Prentice at Find a Grave
• The Elm Tree House at Mount Hope Farm
• Her mother's biography at the Rockefeller Archives