Entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

Hearthstone Castle designed by architect Ernest G. W. Dietrich, was built between 1896 &1899 by Danbury native E. Starr Sanford. He was a partner in Davis & Amp Sanford, a leading portrait photography firm at the time. The granite fieldstones that created the 18 room 3 story castle with 8 fire places came from a quarry on the property. The same quarry produced stones that were used to build St. Peter Church on Main Street and St. James' Chapel on West Street.  The castle is on 19 acres of land and has 20 miles of views to the north and east. Hearthstone was named after the many fireplaces that are in the castle. In 1902 Sanford sold the castle and property to Victor Buck "Buck's Castle". Then in 1910 the castle was purchased by Charles Darling Parks. He purchased the Castle as a wedding gift for his daughter Irene. All of the wood used in the building of the castle was brought in from Italy. All of the wrought iron chandeliers, lamps, and wall sconces were made in Danbury by Cephas B. Rodgers Co.

It remained a private home of Richard and Constance Jennings until 1987 when they were forced to move out.  The City of Danbury then took over the Castle, Tarrywile Mansion and 535 acres of land in 1985. Over the next 26 years, as of 2011, the city never maintained the castle and just let it deteriorate. (Criminal Negligence)
The City can be so incompetent and corrupt sometimes. On top of that the City stages these ignorant Publicity Stunts or sometimes called a Task  Force, to manipulate and deceive everyone into believing that they are actually doing something.  These dog and pony shows create nothing but pretty numbers and charts that end up never achieving anything.  It's like the City will not take any significant action unless they can some how personally benefit from it or use it to their advantage. You can't have incompetent and corrupt people in charge of making positive changes. 
It never works. And history confirms this.

Everyone hopes that this will not fall to waste as many other Danbury Landmarks have done in the past.

   Right now the Castle is in need of a Architectural Engineer who has Historical Preservation experience to recommend what would be the first step in securing the walls of the castle so that we can move forward with the Restoration.  Then the next step is to remove everything from the inside of the castle so that we can recover what we can and then sell or donate the rest of the  vintage timber and material that will not be used.

I have talked to some people involved in researching the cost of the Restoration and always get outrageous numbers that are in the millions. We are not building a mansion on beach front property in Florida you morons, we are building a 3 story house inside a stone wall that already has a foundation. Here are some calculators that you can use to measure the cost of materials so that you can actually have some real numbers.

E Plans   Building Cost   Owner Builder    Total Take Offs    Home Plans

And we don't have to build a perfect replica of the original castle design on the inside either. We just need to get as close as possible using today's technological advances in eco-friendly design and building materials that are sustainable and also have very low maintenance.  Combining the Old World with the New World. Restoration does not mean repeating the same ignorant building practices of the past.

With the help of volunteers and the good people of Danbury we can save this land mark and turn it into a Museum and a Bed & Breakfast for everyone to enjoy.. We should have area schools get involved so that they can learn how the restoration process works and be part of the process. Just like other projects in Danbury we can also have area companies donate time and resources so that in return they can get advertising, recognition and pride in being apart of something worth while that they can share as well. 

Preservation Nation       Historical Preservation Directory      State Historic Preservation Office

Hearthstone (Wiki)   1986

The Castle Architecture Building Plans

2015 Ariel View