From The Connecticut River Valley in Southern Vermont and New Hampshire: Historical Sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Tuttle Co., Marble City Press, Rutland, VT., 1929, page 209:
"ST. AGNES HALL" A FORMER POPULAR YOUNG LADIES' BOARDING SCHOOL
The $275,000 high school building recently built is the third school to be erected on the corner of School and Cherry Streets in Bellows Falls within the last 60 years. A long rambling two-story frame building which had served as one of the earlier dwellings of the place, stood on this particular site until its removal in 1895 to make way for the high school building destroyed by fire in 1926. For the 22 years between 1867 and 1889 this was occupied as a young women's boarding school. During the last 20 years of its existence the school was under the direction of Miss Jane Hapgood and the standard of efficiency was high. Hundreds of women scattered over the world look back with pleasure to the school days passed there.
The school was under the patronage of the Episcopal diocese of Vermont, the local rectors and the bishop taking an active oversight, and girls came from all parts of the country, it being distinctively a church school. The building was erected for a dwelling and for many years was occupied by S. R. B. Wales, the grandfather of George R. Wales, the present president of the Bellows Falls Savings Institution. It dated back to about 1800, but was enlarged when it became a school.
The school was started a year or two previous to the coming of Miss Hapgood. In 1869 she took a lease of the property for 20 years from its owner, the late James H. Williams, who purchased it for the purpose, but the school attained no celebrity until it came under the care of Miss Hapgood. The name St. Agnes Hall [210] was given it by Rev. Charles S. Hale, then rector of Immanuel church. At the expiration of the lease it was relinquished. as the diocese had established a similar school, Bishop Hopkins Hall, in the vicinity of Burlington.·
Miss Jane Hapgood was born on the ancestral farm in Reading, Vt., September 18, 1831; graduated from Troy Female Seminary, 1850; taught in South Carolina four years and in Illinois four years; and was vice-principal of Cleveland Seminary two years, previous to assuming charge of St. Agnes Hall. She died September 29, 1916, at the New Hampshire Memorial Hospital in Concord, N. H., where she had been an inmate for perhaps four years. Her age was 85 years and 11 days.
Among the young ladies in attendance at St. Agnes Hall in the winter of 1877-8 was a daughter of the late Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, who represented the 14th Illiinois district in the U. S. Congress. Mrs. Cannon visited her daughter in January of that year and as a courtesy invited the entire school of about 40 girls to a sleigh ride. An immense sleigh large enough to accommodate the entire party, with four heavy horses, was provided by a local livery stable. As the outfit turned into School Street, in front of the school building, the entire load was overturned, causing a pretty general mix-up of pretty girls, none of whom were injured. After some time spent in righting and repairing the somewhat damaged sleigh the ride was continued, resulting in much pleasure, still remembered by a number of the particiipants, and also by one or two who happened to be onnlookers at the time.
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The first high school in Bellows Falls was built in 1854, costing $5,000. This was destroyed by fire 12 years later, and the second high school was built in 1866 at the cost of $17,000. The third high school was built in 1885 at the cost of $60,000 on the site of St. Agnes Hall. This, in turn, was destroyed by fire May 10, 1926, and replaced during the following two years by the present one, costing $275,000.