Music Vale's Legacy

The sign that marks the site of the Music Vale Seminary on what is now Rt. 85 in Salem, Connecticut.

The Music Vale Seminary barn that is still standing.

The entranceway to what would have been the Music Vale Seminary.

The foundation of the Music Vale Seminary now used as a garden to the current owners of the Music Vale Farm.

Today only a modest sign near Route 85 states rather unobtrusively, “Site of Music Vale Seminary: First Music Normal School,
1835-1876”.

After the school closed, the lions were moved to the entrance of the Whittlesey cemetery where they stand like sentry guards. The cemetery has a second set of stone walls that surround the lions.

The Red barn that existed during the time of the Music School still stands and the foundation of the Music Vale Seminary building is used as a garden for current owner, Annie Pugsley.

The family is still involved with music as the great-great-great-great grandson of Oramel Whittlesey, Oen Kennedy, is an award winning singer-song writer-naturalist who has made 5 CDs of original music and has another 50-60 songs on deck. The family still owns property on Music Vale Rd, named after the famous music school, where they summer.

Today’s population of Salem, Connecticut knows very little about the once world-renowned Music School that received praise from state and federal representatives. Oramel was once so well liked and respected by his peers in Salem during the operation of Music Vale that he later became postmaster, judge of probate, and was sent for a term of the Connecticut general assembly. If the music school were still in operation, Salem would have been a very different place.