The Present is too vivid for ghosts of the past to endure...
"... then the residue of my estate both real and personal, is to be made use of by said Trustees in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth. viz.: for a benevolent institution to train and support orphan and destitute children: to train them up to industry; to learn them trades and professions to give them a mental and manual, and a social and religious education..." (August 3rd, 1852. Will of Judge Samuel DeVeaux) Niagara Gazette July 21, 1974 P 1E:1
Built in 1863 and served as a barn and storage area for the school. Rumored to have an underground tunnel leading from the building to the gorge as part of the Underground Railroad. There is a reference that the barn may have been built in 1858 as part of the initial construction of the Van Rensselaer Hall. The building which is brick with a normal pitched and gabled roof sits on a foundation of piled, rough cut stone in regular courses.
The first floor windows have segmented brick arches and stone sills, with the exception of one round-arched window set between the carriage doors. The second and attic doors have paired and single round-arched windows with stone sills. There is some deterioration on the south side where an addition has been removed and severed deterioraton on the north facade where the brick wall is falling. (From 2004 report by Niagara Falls Historic Preservation Commission.)
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