Requiem for a house in Mystic

The sad blackened hull of the once beautiful house at 23 Library St. in Mystic is gone now, a year and three months after an act of arson. For all that time its neglected remains stood deserted and forlorn, flaunting its ugliness near pleasant Greek revival houses and the soaring white steeple of the Union Baptist Church.

The classic shingle-style house was built in 1908 by Albert George, superintendent of the Packers Tar Soap factory and a community leader. Later, after 1947, it became the popular boarding house run by Mrs. Stacia McGuire where ladies relaxed on the wide front porch.

Sorrowfully, we watched through the years as George's elegant residence degenerated into an untidy spectacle and memories of Mrs. McGuire's pleasant veranda faded. The charring fire was the last straw. When Fire Chief Fritz Hilbert recommended that it be demolished, everyone was relieved.

But we waited a long time for the demolition. It finally began in late October. The alien domed tower was first to come down, though it still stands on the premises, apparently a particular treasure of the owner. The soot-stained walls went next. When I passed the place before Halloween just one forlorn chimney was standing.

Even before the unfortunate fire, the site was famous as the Library Street eyesore, left without attention for months on end.

At one time the owner had constructed huge horizontal and vertical concrete girders and beams on the property. I never understood their purpose. Was the owner planning to build a moat? Those unsightly forms survived the fire, but seem strangely foreign to the original architecture the Mystic Historic District Commission seeks to preserve.

Will this long-awaited demolition improve the site's appearance?

When I last saw the place, work was still in progress. The spot looked like an unkempt city dump, strewn with bricks, lumber, wreckage and debris, lacking only a few giant rats for atmosphere.

The unattractive two-story mountain of soil on Library Street remained, the giant ragweed now replaced with an embryonic forest of maple saplings. The sagging fence leaned in all directions. It was a scene suggesting desolation and disaster.

Perhaps in time this will improve, although I can't imagine that the unsightly concrete barriers will melt away. But at least a dangerous unstable structure has been removed for the safety of the community.

I wish I had a fairy godmother. I would like to wave her magic wand and transform this site into the pleasant piece of real estate that Albert George bought for his home in the early 1900's.

And while I was about it, I would do something about that faded green wall on Mystic's West Main Street that has waited so long for a new Central Hall.

Next I would demolish the disgraceful structure at Burnett's Corners, once the Masonic Hall. It's uninhabitable and half-fallen, its backside open to the wind and rain.

If only….

carolkimball0647@yahoo.com