Art: Period for a Period Piece

The defenders of Bridgeport’s Gothic-towered Walnut Wood mansion, designed in 1846 by famed Architect Alexander Jackson Davis (TIME, Oct. 21 et seq.), resorted to politics, petitions, injunctions, fund-raising and even picketing in their efforts to save the Connecticut landmark. But by last weekend the battle was lost. Bridgeport’s Democratic Mayor Samuel J. Tedesco, who skinned through to victory by 161 votes last November on a Save-the-Manse platform, ordered wrecking crews to tear down Walnut Wood and make way for a new city hall and civic center. The Bridgeport Historical Society claimed to have $157,000 in pledges to preserve and maintain the building. Snapped Mayor Tedesco: “Not one red cent has been produced up to this moment.” Walnut Wood, just about the finest Gothic Revival mansion in the U.S., was doomed.