After driving them for so long, I know many country roads around here by heart, the curves and straightaways, the big and small hills, the views, and the context, woods, fields, houses and barns.

I know we all have our favorites.

I’m not sure River Road in Groton counts exactly as a true country road, but it is certainly among the region’s most scenic routes, among my favorites, as it meanders alongside the Mystic River, the sights of Stonington, like Mystic Seaport Museum, popping up across the water.

You can hardly drive some pieces of it, there are so many walkers, joggers and cyclists.

I wasn’t paying much attention, but back in 2021 someone snagged a good real estate deal, buying a charming antique Cape, built in 1752, that graces a slight knoll on the northerly stretch of River Road, across from a conservation marsh and a wide part of the river itself, for $440,000.

The house at 949 River Road is on the better part of an acre of land, tucked snug under a tall stone cliff.

It is one of the little pieces of history and New England architectural charm that makes River Road so beguiling, and I am very sorry to report it seems to be headed now toward a perfunctory demolition.

One problem, and the reason I’d like to draw attention to what may soon happen to the little Cape on River Road, is that Groton, unlike many other communities in Connecticut, does not have a demolition delay ordinance, which would build in a little public notice and breathing room before a building is demolished.

Two other houses on River Road have been summarily demolished in recent years. Another house on the road is now for sale, for more than $1 million, with a listing that specifically suggests a new owner might want to tear it down.

Demolition, it seems, is often a part of a hot luxury real estate market.

In this instance, there probably would be no saving the charming little Cape on River Road, since it is not in an historic district or on the National Register of Historic Places, which could help efforts to legally save it.

Still, a public notice and a small waiting period seems the least a community should require when familiar architectural markers are removed, especially when they are part of the town’s history.

We have all kinds of rules that apply to how people build buildings on their own property. Shouldn’t we have one that says you can’t summarily tear one down without posting notice and telling people what you’re going to do?

Most communities even post notices on trees before they cut them down, so people have some warning about what’s coming.

I only learned there are plans to tear down the River Road house by chance. There are rumors going around, but no paperwork has been filed yet in Town Hall.

Groton owners do have to follow state building codes in demolishing a building, which means they have to send notices by mail to abutting property owners, show that they’ve disconnected utilities and prove they have liability insurance for the work.

I learned from a source that the work to demolish the house on River Road has been commissioned, and I was told at Town Hall that a neighbor called after receiving official notice in the mail from the house owner that a demolition is planned.

No paperwork has yet been filed. Once a proper application with evidence of neighbor notification, insurance and utilities etc. is filed, there is no reason for the town to delay in approving it or to slow down the rolling of bulldozers.

The Cape and property were purchased by a trust, with the trustee named in land records as Christine R. Patsiga. I left a message Thursday for Patsiga at her workplace, and then I went and knocked on the door of the address given for her in town records, in Westerly.

No one answered, and the two cute barking dogs at the door didn’t seem prepared to take a message, so I left a letter inside the storm door asking her to call. (Lots more animated barking.)

I haven’t heard from her.

I also haven’t heard back from messages left for an electrical contractor who has submitted a permit for a temporary construction power line to the site, where little red survey flags have been set in the front yard.

The owner of the house is not breaking any rules or doing anything wrong in tearing down that building. Indeed, a lot of people who bought that spectacular site across from the river might have chosen to replace the small antique house with something larger and more modern.

I had hoped to have a chance to tell the owner that people like me will miss that house, even though I respect her right, having bought it, to tear it down.

I was also curious to know, not that the owner would need to explain anything, whether any thought was given to preserving what is there and adding something new, an addition or separate building.

I suspect the little Cape will be gone soon. Drive by and admire it before it is.

And do suggest to any powerful people in town you know that requiring notice and a little delay for demolishing buildings in town, as so many communities do, would be a good idea in Groton.

A little cooling off is almost always good in most situations, especially when it comes to destroying a part of our collective history and landscape, which we may have wanted to learn more about before it is gone.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com