Castle cleanup begins at historic Hearthstone
— The city does not know what it will find when all the rubble is cleared from the historic Hearthstone Castle.
“This is going to be a little bit of a treasure hunt,” said Antonio Iadarola, the city’s engineer and public works director.
There could be some bad surprises — like even more asbestos — but there is excitement, too, in seeing what the foundation of this uniquely designed building looks like, he said.
After a yearslong approval process with the state, work is beginning to clean up the castle within the Tarrywile Park property and turn it into a place that the public can safely visit.
The plan is to remove the debris within the castle and then figure out how to stabilize the walls.
Voters approved borDANBURY
rowing $1.6 million for the project in November 2016, despite some residents calling for the castle to be restored or left as is.
“There is definitely nostalgia around the castle,” Mayor Mark Boughton said.
The castle, built in 1897 to serve as a summer home for noted photographer E. Starr Sanford, has not been occupied since the early
1980s. The stone used for the exterior walls and eight fireplaces were quarried at the park, according to the Friends of Tarrywile Park.
“The castle, if you will, was a crown jewel looking over the city in its day,” said Mark Nolan, treasurer of the Friends of Tarrywile Park.
The city acquired the building in 1985, and since then castle has fallen into such disrepair that it is too late to preserve it in any other way, Boughton said. Trespassing has been a major issue, he said.
Most of the roof has caved in, while the first and second floor collapsed into the basement. A fire damaged the structure in
2015. An exterior deck still has part of its roof, but it is dangerous and must be removed, Iadarola said.
The city has done a good job balancing the castle’s history and trying to create a safe place for people to enjoy the structure, said Brigid Guertin, executive director of the Danbury Museum and Historical Society.
“The castle has been a part and parcel of our Danbury community aesthetic for more than 100 years,” she said. “And so it’s lived in the imaginations of generations of Danburians.”
Last week, crews rebuilt the road leading up to the castle so large vehicles, including a roughly 150foot crane, could access the structure. A fence is being installed to prevent the public from walking into the work zone.
The crane will be used to remove asbestos-containing rubble within the castle. The city needed approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to bring in the crane because the castle is within the limits of the Danbury Airport, Iadarola said. Debris will be sent to a landfill that handles material with asbestos.
Iadarola expects the cleanup work to be finished at the end of August, weather permitting.
The city will then evaluate the condition of the foundation and walls and go to City Council potentially next spring with a plan, Iadarola said. Cleaning up the castle cost $593,000, but additional money will likely needed to be approved for the second phase, he said.
It’s expected only 3 or 4 feet of the walls may remain. A picnic area would then be created for people to sit within the structure and get a feel for what the house was like. A garden would be built, too.
“We look to have people get an understanding of the building,” Boughton said. “We think we can do that by the plan we have in place.”
Friends of Tarrywile
Park has raised about nearly $40,000 to improve the trail system to better connect the castle to the historic Charles Ives House, Nolan said. That project was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, but may start again in the fall.
But Iadarola said he will try to save more of the walls if he can find a costeffective way to do it. He described them as “gorgeous.”
“I’m very passionate about this building,” Iadarola said. “You don’t see architecture, you don’t see specialty buildings like this all the time, especially in a municipal setting. I’m not going to be quick about knocking this down without vetting every opportunity I can and getting as creative as I can.”