The purgatory within Catty

Mitchel Lewis, Activities Editor

When the Dery Mansion is mentioned, whispers of its afflicted past come to light. From its abandonment to its current state, the mansion has always had people coming and going, and some may have never left.

When George Dery was living it high in the early 1900’s, he owned 14 silk mills. One of the mills still stands today and is used for apartments. Dery decided to build an 56 room mansion in 1910 on a .80 acre lot on the corner of Fifth and Pine Streets. It was one of the bigger mansions that was located in the mansion district of town. The house boasts 18 rooms, multiple ballrooms and a pool. Dery was also intrigued by space and astrology, so he had an observatory built.

By 1910 he owned 42 mills, but he lost almost everything in the 1920s after he made controversial decisions in an effort to control the world silk market. He was able to work his way through the 20’s with a few silk mills left, but by 1934 everything was gone. All his silk mills closed due to strikes or shut down due to a lack of profit.

He tried selling his mansion, but to no avail. The mansion sat vacant in a limbo state for about 20 years before it was set for the auction block again. History repeated itself and the house did not get a buyer.

The mansion was used as a banquet hall and wedding venue in the 1960s through 1980s but fell back into its dilapidated state for another 20 or so years.

As the new century arrived, the house still stood eerily overlooking, like a stone ghost of the past. The house changed a few hands with new ideas surfacing throughout the town's newspaper and word of mouth, but none actually came to reality.

The most recent purchase of the house was a failed event venue and bed and breakfast establishment. According to The Morning Call, the owner poured over $300,000 worth of renovations into the house only to deal with more interior damages from “humidity and lack of climate control.”

The house will most likely stay the way it is, stuck in purgatory. The looming mansion will stay in the town, just like the rumored spirits that have been seen wandering its cold corridors and empty ballrooms, forever looking out at Catty.