An engineering study on Hearthstone Castle in Danbury is almost complete.  There are several possible uses in the City's master plan, but Mayor Mark Boughton says the City is leaning toward stabilizing the walls and putting in a floor so that the structure could be used for small gatherings. 

It won't be a fully rebuilt castle.  That's a $6 million to $10 million project, because there are no utilities at the site.  Boughton says the time to renovate the castle was 30 years ago.  But the price tag, given all of the other priorities in the City, is something that Boughton says it just not affordable. 

He notes that the City can't leave the structure the way it is because someone is going to get hurt.  He previously called the site an attractive nuisance.

(Courtesy: Mayor Mark Boughton, taken via drone)

After years of neglect, the outer walls are all that remain.  The roof and internal structure have collapse into the basement.  Boughton says the idea is to clean up the interior, so the iconic building can be used.

(Courtesy: Mayor Mark Boughton, taken via drone)

Mark Nolan of the Friends of Tarrywile Park told the City Council last year that the retaining wall on the lower side was deteriorating.  If that is allowed to go, he cautioned that more damage will de done to what is left of the structure. 

Hearthstone Castle was built in 1897 for E. Starr Sanford by New York architect Earnest George Washington Dietrich.  The land was bought in 1902 by New York financial mogul Victor Buck, who sold the castle in 1918 to Charles Darling Parks.  His oldest daughter occupied the castle until her death in 1983.  The City purchased it as part of the acquisition of the Tarrywile property in 1985.