I’ve walked past this building in Ossining many times. I like the way it looks and always felt that it would make a nice photograph. Unfortunately, on previous visits car park was always filled with cars, which obstructed the front of the building. The left side was lined with a lot of garbage containers, which didn’t make an attractive photograph. However, on this occasion I was able to find a different angle, which I feel allowed a decent photograph. Not my ideal angle, which would have been looking down the left side of the building, but it will do for now.

As the title of this posts suggests it’s the former Mount Pleasant Military Academy Library, which struck me as odd, because it’s in Ossining, not Mount Pleasant. The wonderful, Village of Ossining Significant Sites and Structures Guide describes it as follows:

Property Name: Mount Pleasant Military Academy Library
Street Address: 23 State Street
Section, Block, and Lot: Section 97.07, Block 3, Lot 86
Architect/Builder: Unknown
Date of Construction: circa 1870
Architectural Style: High Victorian Gothic (1860s-1890s)

High Victorian Gothic architecture, which evolved from the older Gothic Revival style, differs from that style in its use of contrasting polychromatic bands on the exterior wall surfaces and more elaborate decorative elements. This style was usually reserved for public buildings such as schools or churches. As it is related to the Gothic Revival architecture, structures in this style also contain such elements as steeply pitched rooflines, elaborate ornamentation, and a predominantly vertical orientation.

The Mount Pleasant Military Academy Library is one- and one-half stories in height and has a roughly square configuration. All four elevations feature a very similar appearance, with a red brick first floor and an upper floor clad in slate shingles. The dominant feature of each facing is a steeply pitched gable with a large arched window. Three bands of black and yellow brick extend horizontally along each elevation, with small crosses made of black brick featured in the center band. The main entryway facing State Street contains an arched opening with a marble keystone and springers (the stone at the apex and the lowest on each side) along the arch. The arched window on the main façade’s second story features elaborate decorative ironwork connecting the window frame to the roof gable.

Significance: Architectural and Historical

The Mount Pleasant Military Academy Library is architecturally significant as an intact and well preserved example of High Victorian Gothic style architecture utilized in an institutional context. It is also historically significant as the last remaining structure of the Mount Pleasant Military Academy campus, which occupied this site from 1814 until the 1920s.

The Mount Pleasant Military Academy Library, built to serve as the campus repository for the Academy’s 12,000 books, is the last structure still standing from the original school campus. Originally known as the Mount Pleasant Academy at the time of its founding in 1814, this
institution was created to serve as a private college preparatory school for young men of high school age living in the Westchester and lower Hudson Valley region. The school’s establishment was funded by local philanthropists, who also donated the two acre parcel on State Street on which the Academy was sited.

The Academy began operation as a normal day high school in 1820. In 1842, a wing of the school was established for the education of female students, but the arrival of new principal C.F. Maurice in 1845 led to the disbandment of this part of the school in 1846. Maurice, who admired nearby West Point and other military schools, sought to transform the Academy into a military-style boarding school for young men. He remodeled the composition of the student body into a corps of cadets divided into four companies, with each company containing several dozen cadets who were led by a cadre of cadet officers overseen by a faculty containing a mix of civilian academics and retired military officers. This transformation was complete by 1848 and the school’s name was changed to Mount Pleasant Military Academy to reflect the new orientation.

The cadets who attended the school lived on campus and were taught military tactics and drill in addition to their regular studies. A separate wing of the school called Mount Pleasant Hall was established for boys under the age of 13, whom it was hoped would continue their studies within the corps of cadets once they reached the appropriate age. The academy remained in operation until the 1920s, when it ceased operations due to declining enrollments and closed down. Over time, the buildings on the campus were demolished as the site was subdivided and redeveloped for other purposes. The last remaining structure on the campus is the library, which has been adapted for use as a business office while retaining its original appearance.

According to the plaque on the building, it now seems to known as the Doris E. Buffett Building for Higher Education in Prison, which the Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison describes on its About Page as follows:

Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides college education, life skills, and reentry support to currently and formerly incarcerated people so they can make a positive impact on their own lives, their families, and communities, resulting in lower rates of recidivism and higher rates of employment, community regeneration, cohesiveness, and reciprocity. We provide post-secondary educational opportunities for incarcerated students enrolled in programs at six correctional facilities in the greater New York area.

Partnering with accredited New York State colleges, we deliver quality undergraduate education that is cost-effective. Nationally, over 67% of formerly incarcerated people return to prison within three years of their initial release date. However, less than 2% of Hudson Link graduates return to prison for a new crime within this three-year period. Educating a full-time undergraduate student is estimated to cost $5,000 annually, significantly less than the $60,000 a year it takes to incarcerate a person in New York State.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV