I was saddened to learn that the oldest house in Derby was recently torn down by the owner.
The Samuel Bowers-John Durand House, known to many as “Brownie Castle”, has existed in Derby since approximately 1686.
Growing up in the neighboring community, I drove many times past the home always thinking about the stories that the walls could tell if they could only speak as in the time when British troops supposedly were headquartered there during the invasion of “Pork Hollow”.
Built by Reverend Samuel Bowers, the first minister in Derby, the house had multiple owners throughout the years. However, the current owner appeared to not have sufficient funds to rehabilitate the house thereby the inability of saving a bit of American history.
It is too bad that the City of Derby, the State of Connecticut, or even a local historic society could not engage the owner to sell the property or obtain the necessary funding to repair the house. Instead the house met its demise by the so-called “wrecking ball”.
Hopefully this will be a wake-up call to the local towns and cities to think about preserving their enriched past by enacting legislation that can either assist the owner in preserving the historic property or create some mechanism that turns over the property to the community, saved for future generations to visit and learn first-hand the history of their community.
The writer, an Ansonia resident, is the former Ansonia corporation counsel.
