Amazing Achievement

It is simply amazing that in the current financial environment, the folks at Chandler have been able to raise nearly $3 million to update the building for the next 100 years. Their success speaks volumes about the tenacity of the fundraisers, to be sure, but also about the benefits of the arts facility itself, and about the character of the citizenry of Randolph.

For this reason, we are taking the unusual step of turning over The Herald’s editorial column to Albert B. Chandler himself, who spoke the following tribute at the groundbreaking ceremony Saturday:

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“Almost 102 years ago, on my 67^th birthday, August 20, 1907, I spoke to another notable assemblage at the dedication of this Music Hall.

“I told then how my life-long friend, Robert Kimball, and I had engaged in several conversations, in which we reviewed the needs of this, our native village, of which we were always very fond.

“It seemed to us that there should be here in this village a town building with public library accommodations, and also an auditorium, well and safely constructed, to be used for lectures, concerts, and other instructive and entertaining occasions. And to such a project we—Robert Kimball and I—expressed our willingness to contribute.

“The twin results of those conversations are by now well known. The graceful brick Kimball Public Library flourishes just 50 yards south of this spot; and this music hall, gallery, and meeting space, now owned by the town of Randolph itself, have been so well embraced by the populace as to become a beacon throughout the entire state of Vermont, a witness to the power of artistic endeavor that has here found a home, and a witness also to the power of a community that has made this modest gift of mine blossom and bloom beyond all my expectations.

“For 100 years, delightful memories have accumulated on the stage of this Music Hall and in the old Parish Hall and the gallery of art. So many of your townspeople have helped to burnish this old gem and to fill her with the laughs and cries of theater and with the timeless beauty of music.

“This building remains my legacy to a town in which I was born, and in which my beloved wife was born, and which lingered in my affections even as I pursued a useful and successful life in the metropolis. It has served well, and it has been gloriously served, for a century of time.

"Today the time has come to expand the legacy, welcoming new partners to the great enterprise. It is time to build for the next 100 years."

(Note: Luther B. Johnson, the Herald’s editor in 1907 and a good friend of Col. Chandler, would be celebrating the current occasion too, if he were still around.)