The Emma Willard House is a historic house at 131 South Main Street in

Middlebury, Vermont Middlebury is the shire town (county seat) of Addison County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 9,152. Middlebury is home to Middlebury College and the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. History On ...

, United States. Built in 1809, it was from 1809 to 1819 the home of

Emma Willard Emma Hart Willard (February 23, 1787 – April 15, 1870) was an American woman's education activist who dedicated her life to education. She worked in several schools and founded the first school for women's higher education, the Emma Willard S ...

(1787–1870), an influential pioneer in the development of women's education in the United States. Willard established a school for girls at her home in 1814 known as the Middlebury Female Seminary. The school was a precursor to the

Emma Willard School The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9– ...

, an all girl, private boarding and

university preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compa ...

opened by Willard in 1821 in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany ...

. The house was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1965. and It now houses the Middlebury College Admissions Office.

Description and history

The Willard House is set on the south side of South Main Street, opposite the main part of the Middlebury College Campus and southwest of the town's center. The main block is a -story brick structure, four bays wide, with a hip roof and a stone foundation. A two-bay two-story brick ell extends to the rear at a recess from the right site, and a wood-frame ell is attached to this wing. The house has modest Federal styling, with granite lintels above the windows and doors. The main entrance is in one of the center bays of the main block, framed by sidelight windows and a multilight transom window; there is a similar second entrance at the front of the side wing. The interior of the house also has modest Federal styling. The house was built in 1809 for Dr. John Willard and Emma Willard; he was 50 and she 22 when they married that year. Emma Hart Willard was born in 1787 and educated at home, developing an interest in teaching at an early age. She moved to Middlebury, where she supervised a girls' academy and studied the curriculum at Middlebury College. In 1814 she opened her Middlebury Female Seminary out of the family home to bring in additional income, and operated it there until 1819. In 1818 she proposed a plan for a model women's school to the New York State Legislature, but it was rejected. The people of

offered her a building in which to open such a school, which was formally opened in 1821 as the Troy Female Seminary (now the Emma Willard School). In addition to managing the school, she taught classes and wrote textbooks, including volumes on geography and history that saw wide use. She retired from managing the school in 1838, but continued to be active in promoting school reform in general and female education in particular.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willard, Emma, House National Historic Landmarks in Vermont Female seminaries in the United States Houses completed in 1809 Houses in Addison County, Vermont Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Middlebury College National Register of Historic Places in Addison County, Vermont

Description and history

See also

References