Deserted Places: Inside an Abandoned All-Girls School, Part 1

Bennett College, originally named Bennett School for Girls, was an all-girls boarding school and college, founded in New York, in 1890. In 1907, the school moved to its final home in Millbrook, Dutchess County, New York. The school's 200-room main building, Halcyon Hall, was originally built as a luxury hotel. It has five stories, a basement and sub-basement. The school also included a chapel, stables, dormitories, an outdoor theater and a state of the art science building.

With the growing popularity of coeducation in the 1970's, the school's trustees tried to convert it into a coed college, but the school was led in financial distress. In 1977 the school declared bankruptcy and shut down. Bennett College's library was transferred to The Hayes Memorial Library, along with other school artifacts and the building was left abandoned. Several attempts made in the 1980s to develop the property failed. The building is now scheduled to be demolished in 2012.

Photographer Steven Bley, visited the building a while back and captured these photos.

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