a brick building worth $3,500. By November 1822 they had more than fulfilled their contract. The building was made of stone instead of bricks and its dimensions, 36 feet by 64 feet, were in excess of specifications. It had cost $32.72 more than had been agreed upon and was ready six months earlier than promised. Daniel Hascall had taken the lead in enlisting the support of the villagers, particularly the members of the Baptist Church, and had supervised the construction. His personal finances became so involved in those of the project that a decade later he was in debt over $1,100 and never was fully reimbursed for the sums he had advanced. When the Seminary vacated the brick building the Hamilton Academy used the entire structure until a fire destroyed it in 1855.
The new building, later known as the “building on the plain” or the “stone academy,” stood on the east side of the present Hamilton Street and was dedicated at the Education Society’s annual meeting in June, 1823. A crude woodcut shows the three-story building to have been simple, unpretentious, and similar to remaining examples of the architecture of the period in this locality, such as East and West Halls. Hascall, by direction of the Executive Committee, had the yard
