“It’s sad to see it go” but iconic building was “unsalvageable”
The final remnants of the former Bennett School for Girls in Millbrook are coming down as demolition winds down.Tony Adamis / Special to the Times Union
MILLBROOK — The massive Gothic building has been part of Millbrook since the late 1800s. But in the next couple of months, former Bennett College will be completely demolished, forever changing the landscape along Franklin Avenue.
Halcyon Hall, which was built in 1890 and is the largest building among the abandoned college’s network of structures, is the last one standing. Demolition is halfway done on what many have described as a Gothic mansion mixed with haunted castle.
“There’s a lot of material to be removed,” said Michael Sloan, project architect for the park that will replace the former college. “It was a huge building.”
How the school looks in April 2022 (top) and how it looked as demolition was beginning in September 2021 (bottom).
Tony Adamis / Special to the Times Union
Demolition began on the longtime landmark in September 2021 to make way for a park on the 32-acre property. Bennett College, a school for girls, has been abandoned since 1978.
Before the building was Bennett College, it was a luxury hotel and lodge for the elite built at the turn of the 20th century by New York publisher H.J. Davidson Jr. When the hotel didn’t see a boom in visitors, it closed.
In 1907, May F. Bennett moved her school for girls onto the grounds. As it grew, it added a chapel, stables, a dormitory, and an outdoor theater to the campus and officially became Bennett College when it did away with high school classes. But by the 1970s, college enrollment declined amidst the growth of coed colleges; Bennett College went bankrupt and closed in 1978, moving its furniture, books, equipment and more to Millbrook’s library.
Since then, the Gothic structure has sat empty, attracting mostly only photographers looking to capture the dilapidated building.
“It’s sad to see it go,” said Sloan, whose mom’s great-uncle built Halycon Hall. “My mom, grandma and aunt went to school there when it was Bennett College. It’s sad, but as an architect, I’m the one who said there is no way this building can be saved. It was so rotted, it’s just reality … it was unsalvageable.”
All of the buildings that were part of Bennett College, including the main building of Halcyon Hall, which was built in 1890, are coming down. (Top: April 2002; bottom: September 2021)
Tony Adamis / Special to the Times Union
The demolition, which began in September with the property’s Kettering Science Center, has required substantial abatement given the amount of asbestos in the old school building.
Related: Abandoned ruins visual essay: Exploring the deserted Bennett College in Millbrook
The plan now is to reimagine the two Millbrook icons: Bennett College and the Thorne Building. The nonprofit Millbrook Community Partnership was established to help execute the project, in collaboration with the Thorne Building Community Center, the Millbrook Tribute Garden and the Thorne family. Both projects are estimated to cost $20 million, which will be raised by the organizations.
The Bennett College property will become a green gateway to the village of Millbrook, with a landscaped park, walking and bike trails and a parking lot for ease of access. The park will encompass eight acres of woodlands located north of the campus, in addition to other nearby land occupied by Bennett Commons’ swimming pool and tennis courts.
“It will be a nice, beautiful lawns again after all this demolition work is done taking place,” Sloan said.
Simple pathways with parking areas will come first before expansion. The park’s total construction could take years, with the potential of an added visitors center and pavilions.
Meanwhile, the Thorne Building project will renovate and restore the 1980s Beaux-Arts school building at the top of Franklin Avenue into a community center, offering film and theater programs, a technology center, co-working space for local citizens, culinary programs, gallery space, a computer gaming room, music and art studios, and public meeting, event and seminar facilities.
Currently, the organizations are continuing to raise money for the project and are gearing up to go public with fundraising efforts.
“It’s going to be a beautiful addition as a public resource for the community,” Sloan said.
History
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. 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.
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
Halcyon Hall
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 requireme 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.The bank itself failed in 1991and 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. 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.Halcyon Hall was the last building standing of Bennett College before it was demolished in 2022.
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.
(Source:Timesunion&Wikipedia)