It is believed that the fire at Croydon Manor started in the scullery with faulty electric wiring. The manor was well over two hundred years old and the wiring throughout was once again being updated. Whether or not the fire began with the old or the new wiring at present is unclear.
It is a great tragedy for the town. George Washington is reputed to have stayed there at least three times. It was certainly an historic homestead. With more certainty it is known that the poet Walt Whitman spent a number of vacations there being friends of the then owners. In fact if you stood in the kitchen and looked towards the open backdoor you could see lilacs in bloom. It is not known if this sparked his poem “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d” but they’ve certainly bloomed their last now.
Yes indeed. The place stood as the oldest residence in the area, possibly in the state, and it’s a tragedy beyond words that Croydon Manor is no longer part of the town’s living history. It can’t be rebuilt. A new building would not be the place where George Washington and Walt Whitman stayed. And Neil Armstrong. Did I mention him?
The good news is this: that we need not worry about the owners, Mr and Mrs Burton and their eight children, as they all perished. Are there any question?
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