June’s store will be closed on Easter, but if you want a special appointment, give here a call at 802-459-2380.

We’re looking forward to a unique season – lots of bargains, lots happening – stay tuned!

Check this video out to see why Danby white marble is so great in the kitchen, then come by the museum for a large Vermont marble baking board ($75.00), cheese serving boards (Special $14.95!) and Vermont marble trivets – or see our Vermont Verde Antique model kitchen for inspiration!

Attendees had the opportunity to introduce themselves, and many took advantage of the time to share business practices or regional news, and discuss how best to disseminate industry information to one another. It was a fruitful set of meetings that reinforced a sense of community and mutual support, lending structure to a group of businesses that, while largely independent, can absolutely stand to benefit from communicating with one another.

During the tour, Burr Morse, owner of Morse Farm Maple Sugar Works in Montpelier, remarked to me (a Chicagoan new to both Vermont and this position– grateful to be participating in the tour not just for the novelty and history, but more importantly because I’ll hopefully lead similar ones), “This is literally Vermont’s best kept secret; I plan on sending everyone I know down here to Proctor to check you guys out!”.

Throughout the day, members of the VAA, many of whom are longstanding wholesale customers of the Marble Museum, took the opportunity to browse the gift shop, which we had operating at a nearly normal clip—we open for business officially on May 16th!

April 13, 1743, born in Shadwell, VA to Peter and Jane Jefferson, he was the third of 10 children.

Beginning school at age 9, he studied Greek, Latin, French, History and Science. At 16 he entered the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and studied mathematics, philosophy and metaphysics, after which he earned his law degree with George Wythe, a later signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Thomas Jefferson, the lawyer, became a delegate to the Continental Congress, was the writer of the Declaration of Independence, a governor of Virginia, ambassador to France and Secretary of State under President George Washington. In addition to these achievements, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third President of the United States, serving two terms in this highest office in the land.

I am proud that the beautiful marble that lies in our Green Mountains is found in the Memorial to this great man.

The exterior walls and monumental columns are crafted from Vermont Danby Imperial marble, provided in 335 train carloads delivered from Proctor, Vermont. The exterior walls of the building reach 96 feet above the entrance with white marble columns that act as light baffles, softening the glare from outside while illuminating the interior with gentle reflected light.

Visit the Vermont Marble Museum this summer – if it is your first time, you will be surprised at the depth of the national history that grew from this marble and this company; and if you have been here before – come again, visit the Hall of Presidents, or our exhibit on the Tomb of the Unknowns, there is always a nugget of knowledge or a bit of fun in discovering Vermont’s part in US history.

FUN FACTS

My Favorite Quotes:
“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.” – Thomas Jefferson

“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” – Thomas Jefferson

Appearance: Jefferson was six feet tall and had red hair

This is interesting: Jefferson sold his personal library of 6,487 books to the Federal government in 1815 to restart the Library of Congress which had been burned during the British invasion of Washington DC during the War of 1812

Jefferson Memorial Facts:

Construction on the Jefferson memorial began on November 15, 1939

The Jefferson memorial was completed on April 13, 1943

The design of the Jefferson memorial is similar to Monticello – Thomas Jefferson’s home, which was modeled partially after the Pantheon in Rome.

The nineteen foot tall statue of Thomas Jefferson inside the monument was originally cast in plaster, due to metal being rationed because of World War II when the monument was built. Shortly after the war ended, the plaster statue was replaced with the bronze one that stands today.

The monument has 26 pillars, which represents the number of states at the time of Jefferson’s death.

The public may visit the Thomas Jefferson Memorial 24 hours a day. However Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 A.M. to 11:30 P.M. daily.

History
Placement of the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin, directly south of the White House and Washington monument created a north-south axis that complemented the east-west axis that existed among the Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln memorial.
Pope’s design drew sharp criticism from modernist adherents who argued that building Greek and Roman edifices in the 20th century constituted a tired architectural lie. Composed of circular marble steps, a portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns, and a shallow dome, the building is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome. Architect John Russell Pope used Jefferson’s own architectural tastes in Roman Architecture a style that Jefferson introduced to the country to create the building. The memorial clearly exhibits the characteristics of buildings designed by Jefferson including Monticello and the Rotunda at University of Virginia. Pope intended to imbue the memorial with a synthesis of Jefferson’s contribution as a statesman, architect, president, University of Virginia founder. Upon the death of Pope in August of 1937, Architects Daniel O Higgins and Otto Eggers took over supervision of the design and construction of the building.
On November 15, 1939, President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the memorial. Danby Imperial marble from Vermont was used for ther the exterior walls and columns, Tennessee pink marble for the interior floor, Georgian white marble for the interior wall panels, and Missouri gray marble for the pedestal.
The interior of the memorial features a 19 foot (5.8 m) tall, 10,000 pound (5 ton) bronze statue of Jefferson by sculptor Rudulph Evans. Added four years after the dedication, the statue represents the Age of Enlightenment and Jefferson as a philosopher and statesman.

All of the links below have great information on Thomas Jefferson and the Jefferson Memorial. I thank them for all the information!

http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/facts-on-thomas-jefferson.html
http://www.washingtondc-go.com/attractions/jefferson-memorial-history.html
http://www.american-history-fun-facts.com/jefferson-memorial-history.html
http://vermont-marble.com/blog/2011/03/04/marble-minutes-changing-of-the-guard/
http://geology.about.com/od/geology_dc/ig/washdcgeology/wdcjefcolslit.htm
http://www.riverexplorer.com/details.php4?id=453
http://www.nps.gov/thje/index.htm
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/stones/stops28-33.html

Here is an FDR “interesting fact”: Who gave the bride away at FDR and Eleanor’s wedding?
Answer:
Theodore Roosevelt . Theodore was Eleanor’s uncle; the brother of her late father, Elliott.
He had a hard time getting to the ceremony, with the St. Patrick’s Day parade going on and the normal hoopla the arrival of the President causes. Eleanor was FDR’s fifth cousin. TR was quoted as saying, “There’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.”

Hope you all visit the Hall of Presidents this summer – we will be opening May 15th.

Throughout the dark days of World War II, Vermont Marble Co. carried on with its building stone and monument business. While portions of the marble company operations were dedicated to filling government war equipment contracts, prestigious buildings, including the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, were also built during that era. In May 1939, the company was awarded the contract to provide a total of 335 carloads of high-grade white marble from the Danby quarry for the Jefferson Memorial. By February 1941, the final shipment of Imperial Danby marble was sent to Washington. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial on April 14, 1943.

But times were changing, and company executives realized that after the war, new markets would have to be found for their stone. Frank C. Partridge, former president of Vermont Marble Co., was on the company’s Board of Directors and played an active role in seeing that the company changed with the times. Although Partridge, along with Redfield Proctor Jr., had endured criticism for the actions taken to break the 1936 strike, he also enjoyed a remarkable career with the company.

Partridge was born in Middlebury, attended Amherst College and Columbia Law School. He moved to Rutland and began practicing law in 1885, but his law career was short-lived. By 1886, Partridge had moved to Proctor to begin working for Vermont Marble Co.

Upon his death in 1943, The Memory Stone in May of that year paid tribute to this man’s illustrious career with Vermont Marble Co. as well as to the many public positions he held during his life.

“Frank C. Partridge, chairman of the Board of Directors and for many years president of the Vermont Marble Co., died on March 2, 1943. His connection with the company dated back to 1876 — a period of 67 years. His record of service was remarkable, not only for its length but for its accomplishments.

“For more than 50 years, he held official positions of high responsibility. In 1886, he became treasurer of the company; in 1891, vice-president; and, in 1912, he was chosen president. During the following years of extremely fluctuating business conditions, he guided the affairs of the company wisely and proved an able leader. In 1935, at the age of 74, he became chairman of the board and continued his active connection with the business until a few days before his death.”

Partridge’s early legal training qualified him for many positions of service to the state and the nation. He went to Washington from Vermont as private secretary to Redfield Proctor when Proctor was secretary of war. He was appointed solicitor of the State Department to succeed the late Walker Blaine, and later was appointed U.S. Minister to Venezuela by President Benjamin Harrison.

Partridge had extensive diplomatic experience and a wide knowledge of the business methods of the State Department. Therefore, he was appointed consul general to Tangier in 1897, just prior to the Moroccan Crisis, which was one of the many conflicts occurring overseas. These conflicts aggravated Europe’s already unstable state and eventually resulted in World War I.

Partridge was also appointed for a brief term to the U.S. Senate, and he served as delegate to the Fifth Pan-American Conference in Santiago, Chile. In Vermont, he served as state senator, member of the Vermont Committee of Public Safety and president of the Vermont Flood Corp.

“Such a background of training and experience in both law and business gave Mr. Partridge unusual qualifications for the management of our company. His good judgment, power of analysis, foresight and executive ability has contributed in large measure to the company’s position today.”

Redfield Proctor, Jr. succeeded Partridge as Vermont Marble Co. president. Proctor, along with the marble company’s Board of Directors, began to turn the direction of the company around to fill the needs of the post-war economy.

Cultural Heritage Walls

The Cultural Heritage Walls honor workers in Vermont’s marble industry. The walls are crafted of white marble and placed in Proctor and West Rutland. They are engraved with the names of the immigrants who fled Europe as well as their future generations of family. All of these men brought resourcefulness, hope, commitment and talents that contributed significantly to Vermont’s famed marble industry.

Already, 28 names grace the Proctor Wall. Here are some of the new honorees, whose names will be added to the Proctor Wall and the new, West Rutland Wall this spring.

On the Proctor Wall: Joseph M. Beauregard, USA; Erick Erickson, Sweden; John Dahlin, Sweden.

On the West Rutland Wall: Adam Sitek, Poland; Adam Libuda, Poland; Mike Lengol, Czechoslovakia; William Godek, Poland; Joseph Pokrywka, Poland.

You, too, can honor your relatives who worked in the marble industry by commemorating their contributions on the Heritage Walls. The deadline is April 15, 2011, for inclusion in this spring’s installation.

Sponsor forms can be downloaded at www.dimensionsofmarble.com or call the Vermont Marble Museum, 459-2300, to be mailed a form. Cost is $250 per family name.

The utopian days of the early Proctor family reign came to halt with the passing of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. The act gave workers across the United States the right to organize among themselves and negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.

The industrial workers of Vermont Marble Co. saw in the N.L.R.A. an act of liberation and translated it immediately into a united surge toward unionization.

The Vermont Marble Co. strike, while not as violent as others that erupted across the nation, was significant in other ways. It represented the clash between the ruling class and their workers—class conflict—that was sweeping the nation.

Author Georges Seldes, of Windsor, in his 1937 book “You Can’t Do That” describes how workers committed economic treason when they chose to unite against their employers. In a personal anecdote, he relates how, as a reporter, he investigated the strike himself.

“Said the local representative of the Rutland Herald to me,“If you are still a good reporter you ought not to make up your mind until you hear both sides of the story. You ought to see Mr. X (mentioning the name of the man representing law and order). Mr. X is a square guy.”

“I agreed. We rode down to Mr. X’s house but did not find him in. So to kill time I decided on a haircut. When I came into the shop, the barber was just polishing off a customer, and I will take an oath that the following is the exact transcription of the conversation, since I wrote it down that very minute:

Barber (to customer, who is leaving): ‘Well, how’re things up at Proctor?’ (Proctor is also one of the towns of the Vermont Marble Co.)

Customer: ‘Quiet. They’ve stopped picketing.’

Barber: ‘How’s it going to come out?’

Customer: ‘They’ve broken off negotiations.’

I: ‘Who, the Proctors?’

Customer: ‘No, the men. (Angrily) We ought to ship the whole gang of them out, get rid of them, send them back where they belong . . . ‘

I: ‘But people have the right to strike, haven’t they?’

Customer: ‘It’s the damn reds. Coming up here to Vermont and trying to tell US how to run our country.’

(In a fury the customer slams out of the shop.)

I : ‘Who was that?’

Barber: ‘That’s Mr. X. He’s sore as hell at those liter’y folks from New York buttin’ in favoring the workmen. Foreigners have no right to butt in. If the New Yorkers hadn’t sent food and money the Proctors would have broke the men in no time.’”

Among American capitalists, the Proctor family was considered as belonging to the enlightened, paternal and more intelligent minority: they were fair and honorable employers of the old school.

Seldes said, “At least, they have always fostered that impression by subsidizing churches, building a hospital, contributing to many charities — and incidentally shutting the mouth of considerable criticism. The moment I mentioned the marble strike to anyone in Vermont the inevitable answer was, ‘The Proctors are good people, they are noted for their charities,’ and none saw any relationship between gifts of a hundred thousand dollars and — after deductions for rent, light, etc., (company services) — pay checks of twenty cents a week.

“The Proctors have always referred to ‘our workmen’ in much the same way liberal Southerners in old times referred to ‘my Negroes,’ and it was a shock, which they will never forget to have ‘our workmen’ organize regular unions and refuse to join the company union which the Proctors tried to impose, or accept an announced pension plan which, the Proctors said, would make the old age of every skilled marble worker peaceful, serene, free from financial care, near heaven on earth.”

Unionization was treason. The Proctors, like other great American the great industrialists, were chagrined and angered. “Our workmen” were biting the hand that fed them.

“A company that never missed a dividend and never paid a living wage’ — so one of the ministers of the gospel in one of the Proctor towns referred to the Vermont Marble Co., immediately adding: ‘But please do not use my name. The Proctors, who control everything in this part of the state, the press, the banks, the members of the legislature, are also powerful in the church.”

The strike was also significant in that writers, artists and other professional men — leaders of the intellectual minority — used it as a platform to preach social reform. Women intellectuals led the way, trying to protect the women and children of the strikers. Poet Genevieve Taggard, from East Jamaica, Vermont wrote about her “working class sisters” and served on the United Committee to Aid Vermont Marble Workers. The committee, which held public hearings in Rutland, included poets, professors, students, clergymen, and journalists— the “damn reds” referred to by Mr. X in Seldes’ anecdote.

As a committee member, Taggard was tasked with confronting Vermont Marble officials. However, she was stonewalled in her attempts to reach Redfield Proctor Jr., Mr. Williams the company treasurer, and Frank Partridge. Mr. Proctor was “out of town,” Mr. Williams “had no desire to be called to the phone” and Mr. Partridge had nothing to say to a member of “this delegation” nor did he think would anyone else.

The committee held a public meeting on Feb. 29, 1936, in West Rutland. Although the company bosses were invited, none chose to attend. The committee took testimony on the hopelessness and hunger endured by the families of striking workers. A women testifying, Mrs. Mereau, took the stand with baby in arm, saying that at first the union provided somewhat for them, but the state did not give the aid that they were supposed to give the poor. “We have enough potatoes for the children tonight. None for tomorrow.”

Another of the striker’s wives, Mrs. Bujak, said she could no longer send her children to school because she had had no warm clothing for them. When she went to the Overseer of the Poor, who was also a marble company official, to request relief, she was told that she was not eligible because she owned her own home.

By July 1936, the marble bosses prevailed and the strike was broken. A new era was ushered in. Corporate America was born.