American School for the Deaf postpones move to West Hartford until after the war

1. Following the meeting, Henry A. Perkins issued a statement that the school would not relocate to its new site in West Hartford until after the war. In the meantime, Perkins said that a site plan, the planting of “necessary trees,” and other unspecified “preliminary work” on the new location would likely proceed this year.
2. Perkins also said that the cost of the project now likely exceeded the school’s initial estimate of $350,000. He conceded he had no idea how much it would cost now, only that it would probably be “a good deal more.”

1. According to the Courant article, Henry A. Perkins was the source of information on the proceedings of the meeting as well as the official statement after the meeting. Perkins’s comment to the reporter and his statement don’t quite agree, but they don’t entirely disagree, either.
2. Also, the Courant referred to Perkins as the “president of the corporation,” which he may have been, but he was president of the board of directors.

The school bought the property in West Hartford on July 5, 1917.

School officials will testify before the appropriations committee of the General Assembly on March 12, 1919, on behalf of a bill setting aside $300,000 to support the school’s move.

It had been the school’s custom for almost a century to hold the annual meeting of the corporation before the annual meeting of the board of directors.

Unattributed, “Deaf school won’t move to new home until end of war,” Hartford Courant, May 10, 1918, page 6.