Born: May 21, 1841
Died: January 9, 1919
Married: George Graham Lake in 1863; Frederic Baker, June 14, 1887
Children: All with her first husband, Mr. Lake: Lewis Graham Lake, James Steers Lake, Frances Lake Thacher, Henry Steers Lake (These may have been only the children who survived at her death.)
Frances Emma Steers Lake Baker built Baker Chapel, including its three original stained glass windows near the altar, in 1896. The large east window was added in 1924 by Mrs. John S. Thacher (Francis E. Lake Thacher), Mrs. Baker's daughter.
"To the Glory of God and in memory of Lewis Graham Lake this Chapel is erected by his mother Frances Emma Baker 1896." Lewis Graham Lake is not named above as one of Mrs. Baker's children, but his dates are given in the chapel as October 19, 1864 to May 16, 1883. He was apparently George and Frances Lakes' first child.
Richard Jay Hutto, Their Gilded Cage; the Jekyll Island Club Members, 2002, Henchard Press Ltd. pp 17-18
FRANCES EMMA STEERS LAKE BAKER (Mrs. Frederic Baker) (JIC member from 1897; died 1919).
A daughter of James R. Steers, she was the widow of dry goods merchant George Graham Lake and had two children when she met and married Frederic Baker while he was in his fifties. They had one daughter, Abigail, who died as a child and Baker reared his step-children as his own. She became a member of the Club in her own right in 1897 and visited without her husband when he was indisposed. She became the patron of a public school built on the Island for children of the Club's employees and was known for her generosity throughout the year. On March 9, 1914, "Solterra," their Jekyll home, caught fire and burned to the ground although many of its furnishings were saved by the Club's employees. She vowed to rebuild but never did and, on the site of "Solterra" the Crane family would later build the Club's grandest home.
