History of the Sarah Hull Hallock Library and the Local Environs
THE STORIED SARAH HULL HALLOCK FREE LIBRARY
Welcome to the Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library, the little library with the big heart, founded in 1886 by Dorcas Hull in honor of her sister, Sarah.
Our library’s namesake was a force for change in her lifetime and community: Quaker, abolitionist and suffragist.
PORTRAIT OF SARAH HULL HALLOCK
Colorful “Aunt Sarah” was a Quaker who was instrumental in the Hudson Valley in the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. “The Knoll,” the boarding house that Sarah ran with her sister, Dorcas Hull, became a beacon for intellectuals and activists – boasting such luminaries as George Innes, Susan B. Anthony, Ernestine L. Rose, and Frederick Douglas as guests.
After Sarah’s death, Dorcas began the first library collection at The Knoll, where thinkers and searchers continued to congregate – an appropriate origin story for our modern day Milton Library.
Quaker Cemetery
Willow Tree Road, Milton
Sarah Hull Hallock was born in Stanford on July 18, 1813 to Edward Hull and Bathsheba Gifford Hull. The family lived in what is now Millbrook in Dutchess County and was part of the Nine Partners Quaker Meeting House membership.
Sarah’s husband, Edward Hull, was much older than she. He was born in 1788 in Milton, and when he died in 1851, Edward was buried next to his first wife, Anna Marie (Sherman) Hallock in the same cemetery where Sarah would later lie.
ELVERHOJ ART COLONY
A renowned local painter, James Scott was a founding member of Elverhoj (the hill of the elves) art colony on the Hudson River, near the hamlet of Milton. His work at Elverhoj was interrupted by a tour of duty during World War I, and upon his return to Milton, Scott changed his focus from portraits to landscapes, such as these fine examples we are happy to have at SHHFL.
This work of art was part of a special exhibition at the Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village (New York City) in 1930.
This large 58-1/8 inch by 36-5/8 inch canvas is untitled, but could well be the view of the Hudson River from Elverhoj.
Learn more about Elverhoj:
- Elverhoj: the arts and crafts colony at Milton-on-Hudson by William B. Rhoads and Leslie Melvin, 2022. Book in the collection of the Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library
- Elverhoj Art Colony, Marist College Archives
- Guide to William and Sally Rhoads Collection of Elverhoj, 1887-1985, Vassar College Library
- “Rediscovering Elverhoj: Milton’s lost Arts & Crafts colony”, Hudson Valley One
- “The Elverhoj Art Colony And Its Kindred Spirits”, About Town
Our Farming Heritage
VIEWS FROM THE SEARS FARM IN MARLBORO
Landscapes painted by M. Hancock Dietz (“Teddy Dietz”)
Presented by Annette Smith, daughter-in-law of Adeline Sears Smith
M. Hancock, “Teddy Dietz, ” was a dear friend of Adeline Sears Smith and painted a number of pictures of views from the Sears Farm. Created in the ’20s and early ’30s, the paintings of Marlboro and Hudson Valley scenes on canvas board depict local buildings and beauty spots. The Sears Farms was located between Rt. 9W and the Hudson River at the top of Rosoff’s Hill.
