The Bennett School for Girls is a hulking ruin at the outskirts of Millbrook, New York.
It flourished for a time, but eventually went bankrupt and was abandoned in 1978.
Over the last 35 years it has gradually become swallowed up by vines. Sections of the roof and outer balconies have rotted and fallen.
Inside, the floors have collapsed in places, making it rather treacherous to explore. It was scheduled to be torn down last fall, but Millbrook is having a hard time figuring out how to come up with the money for demolition.
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Photo essay at Opacity.com
Photo of interior by Milfodd on Flickriver
Bennett College on Wikipedia
13 comments:
Wow! What awesome reference, if you're looking for images of desolation and decay. Especially the Flickriver site. Great shots. Thanks much!
Brooklyn/NY artists can check out admiral's row for some nice ruins:
https://www.google.com/search?q=admirals+row&hl=en&prmd=imvnsu&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=M8YmT_ChCIa30AHcl-zjCA&ved=0CEkQsAQ&biw=1216&bih=789
but not for long, developers are going to raze most of them (btw the city intentionally let them become run down so they could declare them 'blighted' - even though the army corp of engineers says they are salvageable ) when it comes to historic buildings, mike bloomberg is the most destructive mayor since the moses era - it's all corruption and graft.
also james, closer to you are the ruins at cold spring, the cornwall mansion I think? and who can forget bannerman island!
Millbrook is having a hard time figuring out how to come up with the money for demolition.
fun fact the only reason the 'rational' enlightened French republic didn't raze Chartres (as they did St. Denis) is because someone convinced them they did not have the manpower to clean up the rubble.
Just looking at those photos conjures so many untold stories. What a shame it's been left to crumble and fade. Thank you for sharing these.
I love Opacity--the owner of the site does such a great job of photo-chronicling abandoned places and breathing art and beauty into areas of the world most would consider some of the least beautiful. And he does so objectively, letting the buildings speak for themselves and merely documenting how nature and time are slowly claiming these places (as opposed to some people I've come across who try to force-feed ghost stories to their audience).
This crusty old heap is right around my hometown. I used to pass it on the way to school, every day for 13 years. Neat! :)
Places like that feed your imagination. I spent most of my childhood exploring the grounds of an abandoned Hospice, I found a WWII air raid shelter on one particular expedition. I even used to dream about getting lost in the woods surrounding it.
A huge residential development has swallowed it now.
I looks Hollywoodishly creepy.
What a place.
These places are painters paradise. That's what we do, is to catch that moment of time when someone thinks,"If walls could talk". Such a shame it has been left to ruin and eventually will be gone. Thanks for post James.
It's a pity that a building with such beautiful architecture would be allowed to die like that...
Thanks for sharing the links to the photos.
How sad it is in such a bad way!
I have been fascinated with this building for the last three years and have collected all I could find. Glad to see other people are still captivated and sharing updates and photos. I live in Australia and am unlikely to see the ruins for real.
The Flickriver site has such stunning shots. Everything I see is such as sad view from the stories told to me by my mother and grandmother who both graduated from Bennett. Yes, if the walls could talk we would surely hear of many wonderful memories from the young women who went there. This will prompt me to find some of the old photos of the 'living' Bennett.
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