Parrott Hall: Origins
Parrott Hall offers a rich historic, scientific, agricultural and architectural legacy to the Finger Lakes and New York State. A sense of past achievement conveyed by this grand old structure provides a strong foundation for new contributions to the education of future generations and the economic vitality of the region.
At left, Director Percival J. Parrott planting a children’s garden, Geneva, N.Y.
The "Denton House" was built in the 1850s for Louisa and Nehemiah Denton. It was sold in 1882 to the State of New York to establish the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.
Nehemiah and Louisa Denton–successful hearing-impaired farmers at a time when Geneva was the center of agricultural prosperity in New York–first lived in what was then the Denton Place, on the Old Castle Farm in 1852. The Dentons sold the mansion and the farm to New York State in 1882 to establish the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.
From 1938 to 1942, Percival John Parrott, Professor of Entomology, was Director of New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. From his offices in Denton Hall, renamed Parrott Hall in 1950, he forged lasting relationships with farm groups and the community.
Parrott Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a State Historic Site as well as a City of Geneva designated historic structure (per Geneva City Code Article X, Chapter 350-56).