The Pennell Institute was built in 1886 as a privately funded, public school for the town of Gray, Maine. By 1870, Gray High School was located in the former Town Hall, and due to increased enrollment and ever-cramped quarters, demand for a standalone school was of grave importance. As a result, local resident Henry Pennell decided he would help his hometown. Henry Pennell (1803-1884) as a young man, worked as a butcher and traveled to Portland to sell his cuts of meat, later buying and selling livestock. After the Civil War, he dealt in real estate and mortgages, was sheriff of Cumberland County (1857-1858) and served in the State Senate (1872-1873), and became the richest man in the town of Gray. Mr. Pennell, who himself, never had received much formal education, saw the value in it for the youth of the town. Construction started on the school in 1876, where the foundation was laid, but it would take ten years until after the death and bequeathing of his estate in his will, that the building would be completed in 1886. Henry Pennell left the town the school building, the lot it stood on, a trust fund of $25,000 for the school’s general expenses, and a special fund of $5,000 for the library and for laboratory equipment and supplies. The school closed with students educated at a larger, modern building. After disputes between the Town of Gray and the local school district, the building has now been home to the Gray Town Hall, with the town clearly showing pride in their Italianate style building.