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.
At 105 Main Street is a house that was originally a classroom adjacent to the main school building. It was moved to its current site around 1850.
Is this the house next to the Bishop Jarvis house? And does it have a carriage house behind it? Next to Horton? My husband and I lived for a year at 105 Main St in Cheshire CT. I am positive about the address. The house then was painted dark brown and broken into several apartments. Not in the best of care nor did our landlord make improvements. We were told the front of the house was from the 1700s and the back where we lived was from 1860s and I did once find an early Cheshire map with the house pictured.(1869?) We had the apartment in the back with a small porch. This pic appears to be the ‘newer’ mid 1800s part of the building but there is no porch now. I saw another pic with a horrible modern addition on the front and the house was painted yellow. When was this pic taken? I am hoping it is the same house and house and gardens have been lovingly restored.
Do we know anything about the Hall family & how they came to have the money to create the Hall Library?
Mr. Liebman,
You can find more information from this wikipedia site:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hall_(Japan)
My husband is a descendant of the Hall family, we tried to contact the Hall memorial library in Ellington to see if there are other descendant still involved with the library, unfortunately there are not.
Serene Stevning: Thank you for sharing this link. I had not found that article about Frank Hall. What a remarkable life! Thanks, now I know that the funds for Ellington’s Hall Library came from Frank Hall’s successful import-export business in Japan in the 1800s. That also solves the mystery of why Mr. Iwasaki Yanosuke was sent to the Hall school — it was thru Frank Hall’s presence in Japan in the local business community.
Fascinating stuff — thanks again for sharing. My dad is a 102-year-old Ellington native and will enjoy finally learning how the Hall Library came to be! Tom Liebman.