Bennett College Ruins: Halcyon To Reinvention

Anyone who has passed through Millbrook, New York, has probably viewed the ruins of the imposing structure that was once Bennett College. For the casual Hudson Valley sojourner, it’s a curio landmark that usually elicits stares and intellectual head-scratching. Granted, there’s not much there to help explain this sprawling landmark anomaly.

For local residents, it has become part of their local history. To some, it has become a chronic eyesore, and for long-time residents, it is a heartbreaking memory.

Regardless of its present status, the property does have an interesting history that presents it in a much different light than what the eye would behold today. Indeed, the old place has reinvented itself several times and may be doing so again.

The magnificent edifice was born as Halcyon Hall, a resort hotel built in 1890 with comfort and elegance as its calling card. It was designed for guests who cherished their reading time and, therefore, was built with many private alcoves and nooks where one could enjoy a good read in peace and comfort.

In 1907, Miss Bennett’s Finishing School for Girls relocated to the property from Irvington, NY. The hotel was gone, but the elegant structure remained part of the school’s 22-acre campus. The Bennett School for Girls initially offered a six-year program, four years of high school, and two years of higher education. Shortly after, the school reinvented itself as Bennett College, an all-girls two-year college offering 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 housed a teaching Nursery School and a riding stable.

As with most women’s schools, the rising popularity of coeducation in the sixties and seventies created enrollment and financial problems. Attempts at upgrading the school and offering coed programs left the already financially distressed school even deeper in the hole. An attempted collaboration plan with Briarcliff College, a junior women’s college in Westchester County, fell through when Briarcliff merged with Pace and Bennett College was left with no cure for healing its financial wounds.

Shortly after the 1978 school year began, Bennett College closed its doors. Newly arrived students were offered admission to nearby Marist Brothers College in Poughkeepsie, NY. The school was gone but once again the Halcyon Hall structure remained. Over the years grand plans on reviving the property have come and gone. None of the plans became a reality and Halycon Hall ultimately fell into the realm of ruin and legend.

Most recently in May of 2014, yet another grand design was put in place for the property:

“Two locally prominent groups announced Tuesday they had bought eight parcels, making up 27.5 acres of the campus at the Village of Millbrook’s front door. All who pass are greeted with the eye-catching eyesore of the tattered and derelict centerpiece of the school, an 1893 former hotel known as Halcyon Hall.

That will come down, the new owners say. Part of the land will become a park. The rest awaits a planning process that they say will be one that “makes the best sense for the community.””
The Poughkeepsie Journal

Update

Halcyon Hall was set to be demolished in 2012, and the property was bought in 2014 with plans to develop a park after tearing down the remains of the hall. In September 2021, the demolition to create the planned 32-acre park began. Before they were demolished, asbestos was removed from all buildings on the Bennett Campus, except for Halcyon Hall and the old Hale House. Halcyon Hall, the last standing building of Bennett College, was demolished in 2022.

Next to the former Halcyon Hall are the Bennett Commons apartments, originally student quarters bought by a developer after the school closed.

The Sojourner