Programs & Events - Spring 2026
Sunday, March 29 2-4 p.m., Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek Malcolm Feinstein Art Exhibit Reception Malcolm Feinstein (1922-2014) was raised in the building at 1 West Main Street, Chester, where his parents owned a Chester-renowned clothing store named, simply, Feinsteins. A graphic designer, Malcolm was a prolific painter. His family is honoring him with an exhibit of his works in the town he called home and will be present at the reception. Free and open to the public.
Sunday, April 12, 4 p.m., Chester Meeting House - An illustrated lecture by Marta Daniels
“Edward Hungerford, Hero Carrying the Torch Forward”
On the occasion of our nation’s 250th anniversary, we celebrate Edward C. Hungerford (1827-1910), honored by the Chester Historical Society as a “Hero Carrying the Torch Forward.” Businessman, philanthropist, abolitionist, church deacon and community leader, Hungerford helped create the Chester we know today—developing Main Street, co-founding the Chester Bank, and securing land for the public library, the high school and baseball field. But more than land, buildings or institutions, Hungerford quietly put into practice the fundamental ideals of our nation’s founding documents: freedom, equality and justice.
The American founders of the 18th century had imagined a new nation based on an idea they established in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The first declared “All men are created equal,” the second proclaimed “We the people” are the agents of self-governance, and the third guaranteed individual rights to speech, religion, assembly, etc.
But until the beliefs in those founding documents were put into practice, they were only the unrealized destiny of a huge and sprawling continent. The epic task of building a new nation fell first to citizens of the 19th century who had to invent it as they went. Hungerford was one of those nation-builders. Realizing that slavery and racism were a contradiction to the nation’s founding ideals, he used his life to challenge them.
Join us at Chester Meeting House, Sunday, April 12 at 4 pm: Learn about Hungerford’s courageous pre-Civil War efforts harboring and aiding runaway slaves, risking severe penalties for violating the Fugitive Slave Act. Discover his role leading Lincoln’s Republican Party. Learn how and why he organized reading and math instruction in post-Civil War Florida to illiterate freedman; then in 1897 founded and funded a renowned school, for their children that educated thousands. Celebrate his escape in 1899 from a near-fatal lynching in Florida because of his educational and philanthropic work—helping fulfill the ideals of the founders.
This is part of the Chester 250 year-long calendar. Free and open to the public.