2,174 Comments for Bennett School for Girls

it reminds me of the munsters and l could never imagine somehting so big.

myname-
oh that poor tub got smushed! where did you find the pic?

i love how you can see the bricks through the plaster. a really amazing shot! well done!

i love this building. only been outside it maybe 3 or 4 times. its very beautiful and i regret not having my camera with me :(

the grape shade was the name of a bar /restaurant in the village. In recent years it has been Marcello's.

the science building is 33 years old and was never used. i imagine the roofs are compromised, and therefore there is probable water damage.Perhaps not too
bad though,? as the building has a steeply sloping roof. It was considered a modern structure in 1976.
it is slated for demo under the pending development proposal.

the house shown on flickr was faculty housing. it was to be saved under the pending proposal, although to be moved
elsewhere on the property.

Very sad what happened to this building. It looks like a fairytale, but never got a fairytale ending. I wish the building could have been saved ( Halycon Hall) because it was so just so rare a building. Even in abandonment, it's so lovely. I came across abandoned pics of it on flickr. I guess all things fall to time though. But I know some of the newer dorms were turned into apartments, so one wishes Halycon hall could have been saved too. What was the Grape Shade? Also. does anyone know the condition of the science building today? I saw insome pics on flickr that there is also an abandoned house on the Bennet property- was this the president's house? Just curious.

Looking to purchase one of these fly machines. or the addressograph 350
taylorgwen32@yahoo.com

well spoken and too bad for Halcyon

I grew up in Millbrook and remember Bennett when it was a college. I went to some concerts and other functions there. It was a unique old building with some great turn of the last century features. About ten years ago, I passed through the town and was stunned to see the ruin it had become. I remember sitting on that hillside with a girl I liked when it was a mowed lawn. I couldn’t believe how ruined and overgrown it had become.
Now I run a civil and environmental engineering company that has worked on redeveloping some large, old abandoned properties. I can tell you from firsthand experience that Bennett is done. Whatever it once was, it cannot be put back together. If the developer is willing to pay $4M for the facility as a tear-down, then the cost of restoring Halcyon Hall alone must be several times that. Until you have done the work of putting one of these sites into useable condition, you really can’t understand the economics of it. This building CAN’T be restored. If it were right back in the condition it was in the seventies, it would still need to be torn apart and refurbished to be useable now. The plumbing, heating, and asbestos issues in the photos I have seen online alone would crush the project.
My experience has been that lots of casual onlookers want these types of “grand old buildings” restored because they make nice scenery as they drive past and local folks get very sentimental for the way it was back when, but very few of these people will ever put a dime to the massive cost of rebuilding it. If you think that Halcyon Hall would work as a hotel, then you haven’t done the math. If the place charged more than high end Manhattan hotels and was full every night, it would take decades to make even a meager ROI on rebuilding it. “Adopt a room?” That idea will work if people will pay a couple of hundred K per room and the rooms would have to be demolished and rebuilt anyway.
From what I have read (and I was sad to hear that the Round Table had folded) there are only two likely paths for Bennett. If the town is lucky, a developer will turn the property into something viable that retains some features of its past architecture. If you can’t find somebody to do that, or if well-meaning, but overly sentimental folks drive the developers off, then the ruin will end up as municipal property (town or county) and will crumble slowly for decades. I have seen way too many properties like this where passionate folks with good intentions run off the developers, celebrate their righteous victory, and then gripe for years after about why nobody will do anything with the ruin.
It is really sad to lose such a distinctive property, but Bennett failed as a college and nobody came up with a viable use for it over the last 30 years. If there was one, it surely would have surfaced during one of the real estate booms during those years.
And take it easy on the cranky caretaker. I knew him in high school and he was a nice (if somewhat intense) guy.

U SAVED ME A BIG FINE

As for the flashing, there was plenty of it. This building was top notch in all construction practices. With all due respect to Mr. Motts and his wonderful pictures, there are many things that can't be seen. State of the art for its time - the reason it still stands as soundly as it does. If not for the vandals who have been in and out of the place for thirty years, the place would be in much better shape. Sadly, when the place closed, there were no funds to winterize the heating system or put any sort of preventative maintenance in place other than to board up windows, cover with tarps and hope for the best. There were a number of investors who were not encouraged by the local "establishment" early on. Now, at the eleventh hour, when the new locals are pushing for code enforcemnet, the village is hoping to allow housing that the old village infrastructure cannot support. The proposed development will be a pox on the landscape of the village. An eyesore? Yes, one that the village has brought on itself. Lead leaching into the soil from layer upon layer of old paint and asbestos poisoning anyone who dares to enter the place. Good for you Millbrook!

U R the MAN been wanting to do this for 25 years- the pics R GREAT- many thanx

as a woman I would've never looked at the flashing only the age of the grand old lady

as of 2- 2009 it was still standing

Hello, I absolutely adore these photos. This is absolutely fantastic! I was hoping this place is still existing. If you have more information please email me at edochnal@yahoo.com