Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text

#11 Patriots’ Hall to break ground soon

Area veterans are one step closer to having a permanent retreat as the Patriots’ Hall of Dripping Springs will break ground this fall. Located on U.S. 290 near Canyonwood Dr., Patriots’ Hall is a 10 acre site that will feature a 7100 square foot gathering hall, an accent hall for VFW and American Legion meetings, a wellness clinic, a fishing pond, trails and more.

“This is going to be a community of veterans and their families. It doesn’t matter where you served, how you served. If you’re a veteran, you belong here,” Kathryn Chandler said, Patriots’ Hall President.

Chandler addressed a small group of board members, local dignitaries and sponsors who gathered for a COVID compliant tour of the grounds on July 15.

“This is a community driven project,” she said. With the help of donations and sponsorships from community members, the land was secured. Dripping Springs City Council recently approved waiving the permit fees associated with the project and in the next few months construction is slated to begin.

“If we can get to this goal and have this building up in 18 months, hopefullywe’ll be coming on the downside of COVID and that’s when they’re going to need the most help. Article after article is saying that’s when things could fall apart for Veterans,” Chandler explained.

Army Veteran and Patriots’ Hall Board Member Jeff Wells elaborated on the needs for such a gathering space. “We’ve all heard the statistics. We’ve all heard about the number of veteran suicides each day which is a major problem in our military and veteran community,” he said.

“The best way to prevent this is to bring everybody together, because when everybody is together, everyone can relate to one another, everyone understands. There’s a common ground of what one veteran sacrificed and another sacrificed,” Wells continued.

“We want to bring together veterans from all generations and this COVID situation unfortunately has made that worse. With COVID, they’re just starting to release some of these numbers--unemployment for veterans has gone disproportionately high. Suicides for veterans and military disproportionately up. Why? Because what has COVID done? It’s isolated everybody.”

Wells also pointed out that Dripping Springs is the perfect location for the Patriots’ Hall. “From Fort Hood, Texas all the way down to San Antonio is the greatest concentration of veterans in the United States. Dripping Springs, geographically, is right square in the middle,” Wells said.

The hope is that this one of a kind retreat can serve as a template and be a center or a space that other communities in the U.S. can replicate and customize based on the needs of local Veterans. “This can be the first of many,” Chandler said.

Mary Jane Hetrick, Patriots’ Hall Vice President and Secretary said, “After advising non-profit organizations for a couple of decades, this has been my most rewarding work, helping build Patriots’ Hall from the first idea.”

U.S. Congressman Roger Williams also attended the tour and expressed his thanks and appreciation for the efforts behind Patriots’ Hall. “This is unbelievable, what’s happening here,” Williams said. “I’m reminded of a comment— America is the home of the free and the brave. To be free, we must all be brave and we’re going honor the bravest of us all when this facility gets done.” To learn more about Patriots’ Hall, please visit patriotshall.org/

Dripping Springs Century-News

P.O. Box 732
Dripping Springs, Texas 78620

Phone: (512) 858-4163
Fax: (512) 847-9054