Reception Sept. 24 for association's exhibit about independent schools

SALISBURY — The Salisbury Association Historical Society’s exhibit on the town’s private schools, The Independent Schools of Salisbury, will close at the end of October.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the exhibit (and requires a little incentive), there is a reception at the Academy Building on Main Street on Saturday, Sept. 25, 4 p.m. Regular hours at the Academy Building are weekdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon.

There will be extended hours during the Fall Festival, Oct. 9 to 11.

For more information, call Laura Carlson at 860-435-0566 or Ron Jones at 860-435-9183.

The three private schools in Salisbury — The Hotchkiss School, Indian Mountain School, and Salisbury School — are familiar to most townspeople.

But the town has been an educational center over the centuries, as the exhibit demonstrates. There was the Hillcrest School, in the 1920s. Located on the 300-acre Dwight Allen farm overlooking Twin Lakes and donated in 1923 by Mrs. Herbert Scoville, Hillcrest was “an all-year-round training school for girls who because of personality, difficulties or unsatisfactory home conditions, need the individual understanding necessary to equip them to meet the problems of life.�

For seven years in the 1880s, Lakeville was home to Reid’s Classical School, in the house at the end of Elm Street. The school relocated to Hartford in 1888.

The Taconic School for Girls operated from 1896 to 1914, at first in a house called The Ramblers on Montgomery Street. In 1899, it moved to what is now the Wake Robin Inn. The school had a college preparatory curriculum and was closely associated with Hotchkiss.

Mrs. Tracy’s School was in business from around 1929 to 1937. Located on the Hotchkiss campus, it was for children of faculty members (Mrs. Tracy’s husband, John, taught math at Hotchkiss). The school also used the school building on Montgomery Street in Lakeville.

Earlier in the 1920s, Hotchkiss faculty asked Miss Anna Stuart, a public school teacher, to open a private school for their children, and thus was Miss Stuart’s Private School born. The exhibit notes that, “Miss Stuart said she wasn’t too excited about the idea because she knew the children would be different than those she was used to.�

The Salisbury Academy (aka the Select School) was established in 1833. A group of 25 “town fathers� thought the town “should provide opportunities for education beyond what was offered in the 14 district public schools.�

Tuition for English was $3, for languages $4, and “every student’s family was expected to supply fuel wood.�

The exhibit also records that among the expenses in 1836 was 50 cents for “Keeping and ringing the bell.� In 2009, the rediscovered bell had a new rope attached and is back in business.

The Twin Lakes property formerly occupied by the Hillcrest School was purchased in 1941 by the Institute of World Affairs (originally established in 1924 in Switzerland).

The Institute’s graduate-level programs attracted students from all over the world. The property was sold in the late 1990s.

Other private schools in town included the Town Hill School, which merged with Indian Mountain in 2003; Miss Flora Weed’s Home School for Girls (1880s); and St. Mary’s Catholic School (1883-1921).