Demolition almost complete on abandoned school in Millbrook

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.”

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.”

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.