Great Depression & World War II
John Lee Pratt
John Lee Pratt
John Lee Pratt was born in nearby Passapatanzy, where he spent much of his youth, Pratt was educated at Randolph-Macon and the University of Virginia, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1905. Opportunity in industry soon beckoned, first with E.I. du Pont de Nemours and later with General Motors, where he rose to become a vice president in 1922 and a director in 1923. His distinguished career included service to the U.S. government on the War Resources Board and assisting with the Lend Lease program.
In 1931, Pratt purchased the historic Chatham estate in Stafford County, where he would make his home with his wife Lillian Thomas Pratt. Upon her death in 1947, he established a philanthropic foundation, giving to many causes through the years. Years before his death, he donated land from his estate to Stafford and the city to establish St. Clair Brooks Memorial Park, as well as deeding riverfront property below Chatham to the National Park Service.
Weeks after his death, when his will was made public, area residents would learn that Pratt also had bequeathed his historic home, Chatham, and its remaining core acreage, to the federal government to become an addition to Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Today, Chatham, noted for its many historical associations and its role during the Civil War, is the headquarters for the national military park and among the park’s most visited sites.
