Browse Items (67 total)

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Only the barn is left at the once thriving music school. A sign near Route 85 states rather unobtrusively: Music Vale Seminary. In the foreground is the cellar of Music Vale Seminary filled with water. -Cindy Lee Corriveau

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The eldest daughter of Oramel and Charlotte, Elizabeth (Eliza) Maginnis (nee Whittlesey), born October 5, 1826, was a teacher and later vice principal at Music Vale. After her husband John's death in 1864, she started a school of music called…

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Two pianos made by the Whittlesey brothers are seen here. The pianos were made of rosewood and mahogany with ivory piano keys that had been sawed by hand and mother-of-pearl inlay letters and ornamentation. On the inside of every Whittlesey piano was…

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The youngest son of Rev. John and Sally Whittlesey was Henry Packwood Whittlesey, born October 26, 1812. Henry was in partnership of manufacturing pianos with his older brothers, John Whittlesey, born January 27, 1806, and Oramel, who started to…

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In the early 1830's, Oramel's reputation as a teacher was already growing. In 1835, two young women knocked at the door and invited themselves in, stating they had come to recieve instruction, and hence, Music Vale was born. Oramel was so well liked…

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The Little Red Cottage, the home of Rev. John Whittlesey, was also known as the Methodist Tavern because of the great hospitality shown here. This is the oldest house in Salem, and is still standing.

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Rev. John Whittlesey, 1780-1864, was a strong-willed Methodist minister of the sect "New Lights". He married his cousin Sally Whittelsey in Westbrook, Connecticut; note the variation on spelling. They moved to Salem in 1801, the year Oramel was born.…

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Here is a view of Music Vale Seminary, taken from a double-photograph used in a stereoscope, the forerunner of the modern day "view master"

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The students of the Music Vale Seminary made this quilt for the Salem Congregational Church Bazaar
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