The Wyomanock Seminary

New Lebanon,

Columbia County,

          New York         

by Captain Franklin Ellis⁴⁴³

1878       

      The Wyomanock Seminary was established as a boarding-school for young ladies, in 1858, by Miss E. C. Hatch.  For its accommodation a hotel building, east from West Lebanon, was used, being afterwards enlarged to meet the growing demands of the school.  Miss Hatch was a teacher of great worth and influence, whose school was soon favored with a large patronage, enabling her to graduate many students yearly.  In 1865 the seminary was incorporated, and a board of trustees appointed, embracing, among others, the leading citizens of the town.  After this the institution was even more prosperous, but the destruction of the buildings by fire, Jan. 6, 1869, suddenly checked this prosperity.  In a few months the seminary was again opened, in the Pelton mansion at New Lebanon, under the name of "Sunnyside," and continued by Miss Hatch until July, 1870.  For the next few years it was conducted as a day-school by the Misses Delevan, but in 1875 Wyomanock Seminary was re-established by the Misses Wood in the fine Tilden hotel building.  The arrangements of the house adapt it admirably for school purposes, and by judicious management the former high character of Wyomanock may be regained by the new school.