Marlboro Music to purchase Potash Hill, its summer home since 1951

On July 21, Marlboro Music—the chamber music study center and festival in Marlboro, Vermont—announced that it reached an agreement to purchase the Potash Hill campus, formerly owned by Marlboro College, that was the location of Marlboro College from 1946 until the college’s merger with Boston’s Emerson College in 2020. Emerson announced that it would not be using the property, and Marlboro College sold it to other organizations; Marlboro Music has come to an agreement with those groups to purchase the property. Marlboro Music has used most of the campus for its summer program every year since 1951. Prior to the college’s dissolution, the organizations entered into a 99-year lease protecting the music school’s continued seasonal use of the campus. Christopher Serkin, Marlboro Music’s president and board chair, said Marlboro plans to “seek input from our friends and patrons, town residents, conservationists, and other vital constituents; and to evaluate our goals moving forward. It will allow us to consider off-season uses that are compatible with our summer program and community, and to begin seeking grants and contributions for a fund dedicated to covering the annual costs for properly maintaining this beautiful and historic property.”