Project Showcase: Vermont Marble Museum and the Preservation Trust of Vermont
22 January 2013 – editors
The Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor, Vermont
Located in Proctor, Vermont, The Vermont Marble Museum tells the story of the Vermont Marble Company — once the largest marble company in the world. Prominent buildings and monuments all over the United States and the world were made by the Vermont Marble Company including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the US Supreme Court Building and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
In the spring of 2012, after many years of operations, the current owners decided to close the Museum and sell the collection. The Preservation Trust stepped in, hoping to raise enough money to purchase the entire operation with the ultimate goal of keeping the collection intact and finding a new non-profit owner to run the museum in its current location in Proctor.
As of December 31, 2012, the Preservation Trust had successfully raised $250,000 to complete Phase I of the project, taking a significant step forward on the path to saving this irreplaceable piece of our heritage. This phase includes the acquisition of the museum collection and displays, including the 2000+ rare glass plate negative collection, and the gift shop.
The Preservation Trust is now beginning Phase II which includes raising $480,000 for the acquisition of the museum building. Additionally, we are actively seeking a new non-profit owner and operator for the museum.
For more information, please visit the Preservation Trust of Vermont website or contact Paul Bruhn at the Preservation Trust of Vermont: (802) 343-0595 or [email protected].
~ Paul Bruhn
Executive Director
Preservation Trust of Vermont
The link to the Preservation Trust of Vermont website isn’t working
Thanks for the heads-up – it’s fixed now!
This is a wonderful resource! We visited in August and were thrilled to find the museum open. There is a lot of very important history here on display about an industry that deserves to be better understood. I am working on the history of Tennessee marble industry and we should be so fortunate to have even a small museum someday.
Vermont Preservation Trust–Thank you for stepping in!!
Susan W. Knowles, Huhta Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University
Susan, I of course thought of you and your work when this post went up! What did you think of the existing exhibits at the museum when you visited?
My aunt, Mary Tenneranni Miller’s father was general manager of the Vermont marble quarry in the mid-20th century. I would like to forward this information to her. It would be handy if there were a “forward” button on History@Work. Btw, Franklin Roosevelt specified this marble for his tombstone and his small memorial outside the National Archives bldg in D.C.
That’s a great connection, Cynthia. And thanks for the suggestion re. a “forward” button. For now, you’ll still need to just copy and paste the post address (http://publichistorycommons.org/project-showcase-vermont-marble-museum/).
I’m recalling that the 75th anniversary monument in Gettysburg was made of VT marble or granite and (I think) stone from Tennessee, symbolizing the reunification of the two sections, also (I think) at FDR’s behest.
Research on the Civil War veterans’ gravestones in my small Northeast Ohio township cemetery reveals that not a few are made of marble provided by this company–part of the federal government’s early veterans’ benefits. In our historical society’s cemetery tours we not only discuss the biography of the interred but also link these gravestones to the Vermont Marble Company and to the Company’s other nationally known monuments. We’ve experienced “aha!” moments when visitors realize how an “everyday” gravestone, so associated with family, is linked to historic memorialization of the nation’s war dead.