Thank you, Gary Comstock, for your informative letter (“Insult,” Sept. 12), on the condition of the former Pratt Read property in Ivoryton. I walk past this property almost every day and have often wondered who owned it. How has such an important historical property been allowed to decline so badly?

This property, as Gary correctly stated, was the economic engine of Essex for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is central to the history of the working men and women of Ivoryton, the decline of elephant populations, and the enslaved Africans forced to transport elephant tusks on their backs over long distances for exportation.

I would go one step further. In addition to a park, I would hope that some way could be found to save a small part of this building as a historical center, which would tell some of these stories. They are too important to allow them to be forgotten through inaction. As one of only two major ivory-importing locations in the United States (Deep River was the other), such a museum could bring tourists and researchers to Ivoryton, helping to boost local business and our local economy.

Karen Ryder

Ivoryton