Hearthstone Castle

A Brief History: Hearthstone Castle was built in 1895 and wasn’t completed until 1899. The Hearthstone castle is located in Danbury Connecticut, inside Tarrywile Park. The castle was designed by Ernest G. W. Dietrich, and was originally named ‘Sanford Castle” after the first family who owned the castle. E. Starr Sanford was a widely regarded portrait photographer and built the castle for his beloved wife as a “honeymoon cottage” for them to relax in. It was sold just 5 years after it’s construction to the Buck family. When they moved in, in 1902, they renamed the castle “Buck’s Castle”. In 1918 the castle was bought by Charles Darling Parks as a wedding gift for his eldest daughter, Irene Parks. The name was changed once more, for the final time, to Hearthstone Castle.

        The final name change was inspired by the many stone hearths the castle has inside. The entire castle is made of locally sourced stone from the surrounding areas. The workers who were constructing the castle actually had a railroad built specifically to move the stone needed for building the massive structure. The property includes, the main castle, which is 3 stories high with a total of 16 rooms, a caretaker's cottage, carriage house, pump-house, barn, woodshed and a water tower. The inside of the castle was adorned with all types of granite and carved oak with grand staircases and lots of stained glass windows. Unfortunately the castle was left in disarray and has since suffered a lot of structural damage. A few of the floors inside have collapsed and the castle is now off limits to the public.

Haunted History: One explorer said while they were on the premises, they heard footsteps walking behind them, they’ve had rocks thrown at them and they even say they saw a “glowing man” running on the floor below them seen through a crack in a floorboard. Another explorer said they visited on the night of a full moon and once they made their way to the basement, the temperature dropped significantly to the point where they were shivering. The person closed their eyes and gathered themselves to try and calm down but they heard a panting breathing type noises and when they opened their eyes again they saw 2 glowing eyes across the room. They shined their flashlights on the spot and there was nothing there. There are a few others who also claim the castle is haunted by a ghost dog. There have even been rumors that kids in the 90’s would sneak into the woods behind the castle and practice witchcraft. These could all be cause for the Hearthstone Castle being haunted today. Another weird occurrence that may be worth mentioning is that the first owner of the castle, E. Starr Sanford got struck by lightning in 1914. He was on a ship, taking a journey to see his son who lived in Texas at the time. It’s stated that he went into severe shock when the boat got struck by lightning; this also led to the arteries in his eyes being damaged. This injury was so severe he never recovered from it and eventually passed in the castle three years after the fateful event, in 1917.