The Hall family of Ellington had a long association with education in the nineteenth century. As related in vol. 1 of The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut (1891):
In 1825, Mr. John Hall opened a school, primarily for the instruction of his own children, though it was not limited to them. […] This school was continued till 1829. […] This was succeeded by “the Ellington School,” which was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1829. A large and handsome building, 128 feet in length, was erected on the gentle rise of ground west of the village […] and the school was opened in the autumn of 1829. Mr. Hall was principal for ten years from that time, and his assistants were mostly graduates of Yale. […] The pupils, who were boys exclusively, came not only from Connecticut, but from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and other states as far south as Louisiana; also from the West Indies and Brazil. They were prepared either for college or for business life, and some of them afterward became men of prominence.
The school was continued, with several changes of management, until 1870. A dedication to education continued in the next generation:
In 1844, Edward Hall, the oldest son of the founder of the Ellington School, established a family school which in a few years acquired an excellent reputation. The boys that were placed in his charge received a thorough training, both morally and intellectually. The school was maintained successfully for nearly thirty years, and many boys living in the town, as well as those from abroad, were profited by the opportunities which it afforded. For nearly half a century the two men, father and son, were foremost in promoting education in the community.
Among the pupils of Hall’s school in the 1870s was a student from Japan, Yanosuke Iwasaki, who became the second president of the Mitsubishi Corporation.
Edward Hall’s school, at 107-109 Main Street in Ellington, is now an apartment house. The building began with the west section on the left, a Greek Revival house that was later duplicated for the east section on the right. The two sections were joined by the higher central section. The school was closed in 1875, the year of Edward Hall died. In 1891, his widow and daughter sold the house to Theodore C.F. Berr, a blacksmith. (more…)