2,174 Comments for Bennett School for Girls

so they are getting TOUGH on tressers [ snap fingers ]

Thanks for the update, Pat. I was wondering what was going on. Celeste, your photos are amazing. Keep us posted, Pat.

Celeste, the photo you posted with the red rectangle, depicts
the west facade as it was from the 1890's before the many changes.
it is about a clear reference shot that i am aware of, contemporary
or vintage. Hope this helps. I cannot seem to find the blueprints of
the basement and sub-basement, I'll try to keep looking. So much
paper, in a digital world.

no other new news, really. Six people were recently arrested for
tresspassing inside Bennett. In the course of their pursuit, a
police officer's foot went through the floorboards. An increasingly
dangerous locale, sadly. Be careful folks.

looked at my pics and tooo much greenery in them to get a real good pic maybe somebody at the end of Nov can get better ones

will check my pics and see what I can come up with- got pretty close to that side in 11"if no have- will do it when I'm there just LOVE this place it's soo hyponitic to see the grandeur of it -unfortunately live in the midwest and they don't have anything to match it -- yeah East coast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the side I'm talking about since I know the photo I just sent is a little hard to see the building features, so hopefully this will show you where it is http://i159.photobucke...ions_zpsf7f5d44d.jpg

To answer your question, I don't care about the add-ons to the original 1890s structure. So I only brought up the white dorm room building as a point of reference. My only interest is the original 1890s structure and what alterations it has been given.

If you were looking at Halcyon Hall from the mowed field, this would be the left hand side of the building. This is the West Wing, I need the west side of the west wing photos. Particularly the stone walkway/steps, and the stone that goes up the side beyond the stairs further left and of course the wood features and roofing if possible.

and I'm sorry to say I've never actually stepped foot near this building. *sad*

i am an idiot savant when it comes to directions but do u want pics of the non wood or concrete looking parts of the school -i have some from 11' but as U say they are covered in foliage it's tooo bad have U been back lately ? am heading out there in Oct

So I managed to find a photo of the West Wing West Side. This is on the other side of the Dorm Room building, just next to the walkway. However, it is covered in greenery which is unfortunate and doesn't tell me much.

http://i159.photobucke...fi9h_zpsb5db45e5.jpg

But this is the side that I want to see, if someone could please post pictures or links... would be nice.

Pat -as usual your oration is succinct-but we dream of Bennnett - a dream not to come true -Celeste- the pics are great -how regal the buildin is -a lost art to the classy ness being modeled today-however love Ground Zero

Nice heart warming post Pat ^^

Speaking of Demolished buildings, during my analysis of Halcyon Hall's architecture, I came across photos of another Halcyon Hotel built around the same time as Halcyon Hall in Miami Florida. Also with a beautiful design. This building was demolished in the 1930s I assume for the land rather than its condition.

http://floridamemory.c...ference/rc14343a.jpg

Photo of it being taken apart.

http://the305.com/blog...yonhotel/rc06685.jpg

I wonder if Halcyon Hall would be taken apart so elegantly? Or just smashed to pieces? One wonders...

it has to be said, this building was past saving about a decade ago.
Believe me, every effort was made by historical/preservation entities,
but only just before it was physically too late. And in fact the current
owner of record, for more than a decade, can't be blamed much for
it's current state.
I don't think there any real villains in the Halcyon saga, in spite of
all the sardonic comments Motts so graciously lets me spew here
through the years.

Preservation is extremely difficult anywhere. The whole
concept of historic preservation didn't really kick in hard until, when? the late 70's? Jackie O's advocacy for Grand Central, the
shameful and needless destruction of Penn Station, etc.....well after this building was well on it's way
into the dumper [how freakin cool was Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis, anyway!?!]

Saving Halcyon is out of the question, short of rebuilding it anew.

What I do appreciate is the sense of Commemoration that this building has and continues to inspire. In many ways it will
"survive" in a myriad of significant mediums and expressions.

Celeste, your virtual modelings are but one great example. This
building has been photographed abundantly, both in it's heyday,
and perhaps almost as ardently, in it's demise. {although never as
compellingly as by Motts in it's decline years, I say.]

It continues to inspire photographers, filmakers, artists, writers,
...I remember a young playwright posted here years back, I have
seen dollhouses built based on Halcyon [loosely...] I remember
when i was young, a cake in the shape of Halcyon Hall! So many
incarnations and tributes, large and small

So this place is at least in the historical record, unlike much of
lost America, but more importantly, in people's hearts, and
memories, and dreams. Often it seems to touch people who have never even been there, in a way I have almost never encountered.
It seems to have this strange Q factor, or something...

And then to think of all the girls who went to school here, and the
faculty that passed through,and the students
who came and stayed, making Millbrook their home, the original hotel guests from New York society, the generations
of locals who worked here, many descended from the master
craftsmen who conjured this grand hotel from a country meadow in the
just 18 months or so they took to build her...

I like to think that Halcyon Hall dreams about all of us.

It won it's own rare second act in 1908. Having sat neglected in
[they said then] almost unsalvageble shape after a half decade
of abandonment, Mae Friend Bennett's relocation of her girl's school
here saved Halcyon, but not without a large expenditure of TLC.

So the ruin we see today was already written off before any of us were even born.Then saved. It's existence for any of us at all was already an unlikely gift from history.

Seing it demo-ed might perhaps be deconstructively interesting.
Seeing it gradually as only the craftsmen originally building saw it,
but in reverse, as it disappears, from profane material fact, back down
to foundations laid out from blueprints on paper, long ago.

Halcyon Hall survives as Architecture. it's physical existence is
immaterial. In fact it may be well in the way of it's own legend by
now. In any event it is assuredly soon receiving the academic and
historical recognition it deserves, as part of a larger story about
American architecture, soon to be ushered to print, and a multi-media
exhibition.

I'd like to think it might appear before Halcyon disappears, but things
happen in their time, as this mighty building demonstrates.

Unless a higher government authority than the village takes charge,
i also don't see anyone paying to tear HH down anytime soon, either.
Everyone be safe. Let's still admire the Ruin however. It will be Gone
soon enough, for those that want that. But many people seem
almost emotionally invested in this place as a high watermark of
American Romanticism. It's decrepitude magnifies that identification,
the unlikelihood of it's survival an integral aspect of it's allure.
It is no wonder people just admire when it continues to stick around a little bit longer...I am one of them.

wanderer that isn't entirely true, sure alot of it would have to be replaced. But I've seen buildings that have been abandoned as long as Halcyon Hall, be restored.

maybe back in '85 it may have been feasible to restore but no way now- too gone------i envy Millbrookites who can watch her demise day by day -she's a going down so njoy while we can

If it meant our tax dollars went into restoring Halcyon Hall, I'd be all for it. I mean, it is money certainly better spent than mass tax cuts on the same rich who let her get this way from the start ( the newer deed owners )

It might even be possible to do just a structural restoration, for historical reference. They wouldn't even have to keep the entire building, maybe just the original primary structure? I wonder how much that would cost?

breaking in ??? maam mayor-----a walk thru park is the definition of entry { who cares about legal defintion} may Bennett hang on till Nov 1--------we need PR to video the fall of the great Lady Halcyon hall -all hail the stone and wood entity that make the governments foible to bring her down- NADA