Groton Wins Fight To Demolish House

The town of Groton will demolish the dilapidated house at the corner of Packer and Cow Hill Roads, a building once owned by a sea captain in the 1800s.

According to planning department records, Building Inspector Robert Mastrandrea applied for an inland wetlands permit May 3 to demolish the structure, ending a year-long battle with the preservation society that owns it.

Groton took the Burnett’s Corners Preservation Society, Inc., to court in November, 2011, . The planning and development services had written to Jim Mitchell of the preservation society earlier that the building was in “imminent danger of failure or collapse.”

The court found in favor of Groton. In a decision issued Feb. 14, the court ordered the town to “immediately engage a contractor to demolish the house" at the expense of the preservation society, to proceed with demolition and to place a lien on the property to secure repayment of expenses.

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The decision also awarded the town expenses incurred for securing the property, and $500 for installing a fence around its perimeter.

Richard Burnett built the house in the early 1800s and was well known in his time as a sea captain who lived along a stagecoach route from New York to Boston. He joined the Lodge of Masons, which met for a time in his house.

When he retired as sea captain, Burnett bought the hotel where James and Nancy Mitchell now live diagonally across the street. Burnett ran the hotel as a stagecoach stop, and it was active until the train came through.

James Mitchell had wanted to restore the house. He and others formed the Burnett’s Corners Preservation Society, took ownership of the property, and even received a state grant. But the money wasn’t enough, and the house deteriorated.

Nancy Mitchell, who runs the Pequot Hotel Bed & Breakfast, could not be reached for comment on the pending demolition Monday.

But in an interview last February, she said the prospect broke her heart, “because when these buildings are gone, they’re gone forever.”