Capital Campaign News

Mary Adams’ foundation is among biggest donors

10/22/08

DEADWOOD – In her life, Mary Mastrovich Adams was a generous financial supporter of Deadwood and Lead. That generosity continues through the Adams-Mastrovich Foundation, which she created before her death in 1993.

Each year, the foundation grants money to various arts, education and religious causes in South Dakota, where she was born, and in Los Angeles, Calif., where she lived much of her life.

Since 1985, her foundation has given more than $4.2 million to various causes in the Deadwood-Lead area. The Adams House and Museum, the Homestake Opera House, the Lead-Deadwood Arts Council and Northern Hills Neighborhood Housing are among the beneficiaries of Adams-Mastrovich grants.

The Days of ’76 Museum in Deadwood has received funding from the foundation as well. In fact, the Adams-Mastrovich Foundation is among the largest private contributors to the museum’s current capital campaign. Museum officials hope to raise $6 million to fund construction of a new 32,000-square-foot museum facility at the Days of ’76 Rodeo Grounds. In three yearly installments, the Adams-Mastrovich Foundation has given $150,000 to the Days of ’76 Museum Capital Campaign.

“We’re very grateful for the generosity of the Adams-Mastrovich Foundation,” said Jon Mattson, president of the Days of ’76 Museum Board. “The foundation has been a leader in our drive to better preserve our historic collections.”

Halsey Halls, a member of the Adams-Mastrovich Foundation Board, said the foundation’s support for the new museum fits well with Mary Adams’ desire to further education and improve the community where she spent much of her life.

“We’re excited to be involved in this project,” Halls said. “Because of her interest in this community, we know these donations are carrying out her wishes.”

In addition, Mary Adams had a personal interest in the Days of ’76. In the event’s early years, she served on the Days of ’76 Board and took part in the annual parade and rodeo. “She talked about the Days of ’76 from time to time,” said Halls, a retired Minneapolis banker who talked with her regularly in her later years.

Mary Mastrovich was born in Lead’s ethnic Slavic neighborhood called Slavic Alley, in 1898. She was the youngest child of Ana and Eli Mastrovich, a Homestake miner. When Mary was 16, her father was murdered. Mary’s mother sent her to live in California.

In California, she became a young widow when first husband, a California businessman, died in 1917 during the influenza epidemic. In the following years, she traveled regularly between California and the Black Hills. On one such train trip, she met W.E. Adams, a wealthy wholesale grocer from Deadwood.

Adams had lost his first wife and both of his daughters. He persuaded the young widow to become his wife. They married in June 1927. Adams died in 1934, and left her a sizeable sum of money. She spent most of the next six decades living frugally in Los Angeles.

Halls recalled visiting Mary Adams in her small Los Angeles apartment. When he suggested that she could afford a larger home, she replied, “This way, I’ll have more money to give away.”

For more information:
Kristi Wagner, 717-6333
kristi_wagner@rushmore.com