Museum and Hall of Fame makes progress towards reality at Centercourt Athletic Club, Chatham, NJ

Chuck Vasoll filed an update with PTM:

We are up and running. Our web site, that is. The address is platformtennishalloffame.org. We encourage you to visit the site which has: a video history of the sport, a snap shot biography of the Hall of Fame inductees, information about how you can help provide funds and memorabilia to the museum, a list and background of the Trustees of the Foundation, a photo gallery of progress in the construction at the Centercourt Athletic Club in Chatham, New Jersey, and other historic photos from the sport’s archives. It is truly worth a few minutes of your time to view this very interesting presentation about our sport.

The Trustees are hard at work in many areas of the development of the museum. Chairman Robert Brown, President Richard Lombard, Treasurer Joseph Rogers and Curator James McCready met with a representative of a firm that designs the interior of museums. That firm just completed the Arnold Palmer wing of the United States Golf Association museum in Far Hills, New Jersey, which the group visited.

President Lombard, who is chairing the fund-raising activity, has compiled a team of over 30 individuals located in all areas where our sport is played, to assist in the fund-raising project. League members, individuals and business representatives will be contacted to make monetary contributions for the capital costs of developing the museum and providing an endowment fund for continuing its operation.

Foundation Treasurer Joseph Rogers has established several means by which donations can be made. For example, the procedures to accept gifts of securities and gifts by credit card are now in place. Please visit the web site for details.

Legal arrangements to solicit contributions, which are tax-exempt, have been made through the offices of Vice President Charles Updike. All states in which the Foundation is planning to campaign for funds have been contacted and filings are completed.

Trustee David Childs has been assigned the work of collecting memorabilia. He has already obtained some outstanding items, such as books and articles about the game, historic clothing and equipment including paddles and balls, photographs of the early days and some movies and videos of championship action on the courts. Contributions continue to be welcomed and Childs can be contacted at his e-mail address, dechilds@charter.net

The design and construction of storage space for the museum at Centercourt Athletic Club is under the guidance of Trustee Howard Patterson. Items that are being held for future display will be placed in this area. Also files of historic information about the sport will be located in this separate section.

As progress in all areas moves ahead, future issues of Platform Tennis Magazine will contain updates about what is happening as the dream of a Hall of Fame Museum comes closer to life.