| Bennett College | |
|---|---|
 Bennett Junior College, Halcyon Hall (around 1910) | |
| Location | |
 | |
Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York, U.S. | |
| Coordinates | 41°46′35″N73°41′58″W / 41.77639°N 73.69944°W |
| Information | |
| Former names | Bennett School for Girls, Bennett Junior College |
| School type | Private women's |
| Opened | 1890 |
| Closed | 1977 |
Bennett College was a women's college founded in 1890 and located in the village of Millbrook, New York. The school closed in 1977. [1]
Bennett College was founded in 1890 at Irvington, New York by May F. Bennett as the Bennett School for Girls, a four-year high school with two extra years of study. [2] In 1907 the college moved to its final home on 22 acres (89,000 m2) in Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York. In 1907 the school had an enrollment of 120 students and a faculty of 29.
In the early 20th century the school discontinued its high school grades and became a junior college only, changing its name to Bennett College. The two-year curriculum continued through the 1970s. Generations of young women from prominent American families attended Bennett over its 90-year history. [3]
Majors of study included art, fashion design, interior design, music, modern languages, literature, history, dance, drama, child development, equine studies, and domestic science. Activities at Bennett included gymnastics, golf, tennis, horseback riding and skiing. The school was home to a full-time teaching Nursery School for 3 and 4 year olds as well as a riding stable.
At the time of its closing, enrollment was around 300 students.
With the growing popularity of coeducation in the 1970s, Bennett found itself struggling to survive. An attempt to upgrade facilities and convert to a coed college in the mid-1970s left the already troubled college in financial distress. In 1977 the trustees attempted to reach a collaboration agreement with Briarcliff College, a junior women's college in nearby Briarcliff Manor which was also struggling with low enrollment. The plan did not work, however, and Briarcliff instead merged with New York Institute of Technology in 1977 after both Briarcliff and Bennett entered bankruptcy. [4] On August 9, 1977, the college closed its doors for good. Its contents were auctioned in December 1977. [1]
The library and records of Bennett College were transferred to The Hayes Memorial Library in Millbrook (now the Millbrook Library) along with other school artifacts.
Bennett College closed a few weeks after its freshman orientation in the fall. The students having already arrived at Bennett for their fall semester were given the opportunity to attend Marist College, a nearby co-educational college in Poughkeepsie, New York.
The main building of Bennett College, Halcyon Hall, was built in 1893 by H. J. Davison Jr., a publisher from New York. The 200-room Queen Anne structure was designed by James E. Ware. It had five stories, a basement and sub-basement. Originally built as a luxury hotel, the building became home to Bennett College in 1907 after the hotel failed to catch on. The Bennett campus also included a chapel, stables, dormitories, an outdoor theater, and the Kettering Science Center, a state of the art building completed in late 1972. The cost of constructing the science building (needed to comply with new state science education requirements), along with other campus upgrades, contributed to the school's bankruptcy.
Halcyon Hall was never reopened and quickly fell into ruin. When the heat was turned off, water pipes burst, causing major water damage throughout the building. Large portions of the roof collapsed and trees could be seen growing through parts of the building. Halcyon Hall was a popular site for urban explorers and photographers, due to its structure and decay.
While several attempts were made in the 1980s to develop the property, all of them failed and the title was taken over by Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank. [5] The bank itself failed in 1991 [6] and its assets were seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Halcyon Hall was scheduled to be demolished in 2012. The property was purchased in 2014, with plans to tear down the remains of Halcyon Hall, and develop a park. [7] In September 2021, the demolition necessary to create the planned 32-acre park began. Each building on the Bennett Campus, except for the centerpiece Halcyon Hall and the old Hale House, had asbestos removed before being demolished. [8] Halcyon Hall was the last building standing [9] of Bennett College before it was demolished in 2022. [10]
Adjacent to the former Halcyon Hall are the Bennett Commons apartments. These apartments were originally student quarters but upon closure of the school they were bought by a developer. [11]
Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later organized in 1713. The county is part of the Hudson Valley region of the state.
Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, 90 miles (140 km) north of New York City. Millbrook is near the center of the town of Washington, of which it is a part. In the 2020 census, Millbrook's population was 1,455. It is often referred to as a low-key version of the Hamptons, and is one of the most affluent villages in New York.
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The Thorne Memorial School building is located at Franklin and Maple streets in Millbrook, New York, United States. It is a brick structure built at the end of the 19th century, considered the most distinctive public building in the village.
Thomas Robert Hazzard was an American football player and coach, minister, farmer, missionary, and riveter. He served as the head football coach at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1901, compiling a record of 1–3–1. An Episcopal clergyman, Hazzard founded Hope Farm in Dutchess County, New York, in 1907.
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The Briarcliff Lodge was a luxury resort in the village of Briarcliff Manor, New York. It was a notable example of Tudor Revival architecture, and was one of the largest wooden structures in the United States. It was also the first hotel in Westchester County. Walter William Law had it built on his estate, and the Law family owned it until 1937. When the lodge opened in 1902, it was one of the largest resort hotels in the world. The lodge hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities, and was the scene of numerous memorable occasions for visitors and local residents who attended weddings, receptions, and dances in the ballroom and dining room. For a long time, the lodge was situated among other businesses of Walter Law, including the Briarcliff Farms and Briarcliff Table Water Company.
The Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District is the public school district of Briarcliff Manor, New York. The district is an independent public entity, and is governed by the district Board of Education, whose members are elected in non-partisan elections for staggered, three-year terms. The board selects a superintendent, who is the district's chief administrative official. The district's offices are located in Todd Elementary School.
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Briarcliff Farms was a farm established in 1890 by Walter William Law in Briarcliff Manor, a village in Westchester County, New York. One of several enterprises established by Law at the turn of the 20th century, the farm was known for its milk, butter, and cream and also produced other dairy products, American Beauty roses, bottled water, and print media. At its height, the farm was one of the largest dairy operations in the Northeastern United States, operating about 8,000 acres (10 sq mi) with over 1,000 Jersey cattle. In 1907, the farm moved to Pine Plains in New York's Dutchess County, and it was purchased by New York banker Oakleigh Thorne in 1918, who developed it into an Aberdeen Angus cattle farm. After Thorne's death in 1948, the farm changed hands several times; in 1968 it became Stockbriar Farm, a beef feeding operation. Stockbriar sold the farmland to its current owners in 1979.
