Editor’s note: The Daily News is publishing an eight-part story written by former Pink House owner Bruce Stott. The Stott family owned the iconic Newbury home from 1960 to 2010 before selling it to the federal government.
In a kind of Phoenix analogy, a new beginning was celebrated a few feet away from the boat and her former master with a wonderful wedding, ceremony, where I married my wife, Linda in 1983. The wedding was conducted with more than 100 attendees followed by a Woodman’s-catered lobster bake served under a big tent accompanied by a band.
The Rev. William Carter of the Newbury church administered the service. Words were said from a great fellow sailor and best man, Boston epidemiologist Dr. Jonathan Freeman. Former well known Daily News photographer Bill Lane took pictures and gifted us his photographs of the wedding. It was a sunny day with an occasional plane flying overhead toward the airport landing strip across the creek.
It’s a mysterious story of a house in peril of being torn down by its owners, who have their reasons with respect. Its a story of a house with difficulty and in disrepair looking forlorn and weary. A place prized by artists and bird lovers and tourists to drive by. A tourist attraction and a pink elephant rolled into one. A place that has become a cottage industry to local artisans. And now it can’t be bought or sold in a time when housing is in high demand. A place so beloved by the public that tearing it down is tearing out a part of the town’s personality.
It’s truly ironic and perplexing to know the new owners of property had their own employees staying in the house renting rooms from us in the summers when we lived there. Mom, ever enterprising, rented rooms to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge employees for summer for more income. She always had an amicable relationship with the organization too. We would share stories with them in the evenings and spread maps over the dining room table where we also shared a meal on occasion.
One can be mystified that after hoping the new owners would use and enjoy it and overcome obstacles we lived with all the time (And promote the use of the building and land). It’s confounding to know the land and house have not been utilized for the educational enjoyment of the outdoors we hoped it would become. Much work by the owners has been put in to be fair, but Pinkie needs more. And all efforts to save her appear exhausted with so many people involved at many levels to swap, save, rebuild, relocate it to no avail.
Despite the hazards reported there, so does many a house in Newburyport have the same conditions just not publicly known or reported. It’s the results from the same building products on the market at the time used by all tradesmen everywhere at the time. It’s amazing when meeting people; they want to discuss its problems which are actually quite common never discussing the wonder of the place. They can be forgiven, because they just don’t know enough.
Does anyone happen to remember by chance how much money, time and effort was spent to clean up the seriously hazardous junkyard that sat untouched for years on the corner where the current refuge visitor center sits?
Bruce Stott lives on Plum Island and in Sebastian, Florida.