Photo courtesy of Dorothy Jamison After 107 years, the Calumet Theatre is once again lighted by a chandelier.

CALUMET – After 107 years since a chandelier in the auditorium of the Calumet Theatre was destroyed in a fire, its replacement was lighted Saturday night during a reserved seating ceremony. The chandelier’s illumination is the result of a two-year effort to raise funds for the project.

The husband and wife team of Jim and Terri Enrietti spearheaded the campaign to replace the chandelier. Jim said the new one, was ordered from a company in Minnesota. “The frame of the light is finished in a gold luster metal and is just over seven feet wide, and eight and half feet tall, with a weight of 450 pounds,” Jim said. “It has 128 arms with 128 LED replaceable bulbs, and can be dimmed. It’s a big piece of machinery here,” he said.

However, the new chandelier it does not resemble the original and was not intended as a replica. Calumet Theatre Co. Board President Dan Jamison said he read a quote described the chandelier as looking like a dandelion that was just about ready to go to seed. “Big, round, airy, light,” said Jamison, “there was something like 150 light bulbs in it.”

Since 2023, the Enriettis have been the driving force behind a project to raise the funding to replace the chandelier. They organized and hosted the first Calumet Theatre fundraising event in July, 2023, with Penny Schute Menze co-organizing the event.

“It represents the years of music, it represents their community,” Menze said, “it represents them giving to the theater and being able to that through this.”

In July, 2024, the Second Annual Fundraiser Dinner and Ball was conducted in the Calumet Theatre Ball Room.

Two months later, the Keweenaw Health Foundation donated $15,000 to the project. Enrietti said the donation puts the Chandelier Society in the financial position to then move forward with the first phase of the project. Enrietti said in September that the KHF donation funded the study the beams and supports above the ceiling.

The Enrietti couple was on stage when the chandelier was revealed and illuminated.

“It was stunning,” Jim said. “Of course, we were on the stage, and I looked up at that thing when it just popped, and I mean – I can’t – I was awestruck. For once in my life, I think I was speechless.”

Jim said he is thankful for the people who supported the project and is doubly thankful to Terri and the amount of work that she did.

“She designed all of the centerpieces on the tables (gala and fundraisr dinner in the ballroom) how the seating was to be arraigned, and the details forthe past three years,” he said. “In all of these things, I’ve not worked alone. Terri and I work together.”

Jim said after searching through hundreds of chandeliers, he and Terri realized the one selected was one of the first ones that she bird dogged.

“She was the one who first noticed it, and she said ‘I like this one,’ and when it was time to order it, we came up with a couple of choices, sent them to the committee, and asked not only which chandelier, but was it to be silver or gold. The consensus was it was to be in gold.”