Pink House Supporters Blindsided

NEWBURY – When U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced last week that it planned to demolish the beloved Pink House on the Plum Island Turnpike, its strongest supporters were completely blindsided.
The leaders of the Support the Pink House (STPH), a non-profit organization formed to save and restore The Pink House under a perpetual preservation restriction, said they are not giving up hope that the almost 100-year-old house will be saved for the community to continue to enjoy and for the thousands of artists to photograph and paint the icon.
On Halloween, the STPH Board were invited by Parker River Refuge Manager Matt Hillman to a video conference meeting, attended by multiple members of the congressional delegation. The board members expected to discuss new options for the house with FWS, assisted by the congressional staff.
But instead of a Halloween treat, Hillman delivered the news that the house, owned by the FWS, would be demolished within two months, possibly being replaced by a viewing station of the salt marsh. The agency is holding a 30-day comment period about the demolition plan.
“We were ambushed,” said Rochelle Joseph, who heads the STPH. She described the 90-minute meeting as feeling it was “clearly orchestrated.”
None of the staff for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton or U.S. Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren challenged the demolition decision.
Three days later, at a meeting of the Merrimack River and Beach Assn., Hillman held out a ray of hope.
When asked if there were no other option, he said there are always options, according to people who attended the meeting headed by state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester.
Hillman said the agency’s real estate division would still consider an offer for a land swap for the Pink House. Working with the STPH leadership, the agency has been trying for years to find land that suits FWS’ criteria for an exchange.
Hillman agreed to post the criteria for a land swap on its web site.
That criteria is stringent. Under federal rules, an appropriate parcel would have to be worth at least $425,000, well more than the $375,000 the government paid in 2011 to buy the house and its three parcels totaling 9.29 acres.
Most likely, appropriate trade land would have to be 300-plus acres of marsh land, which goes for approximately $1,000 an acre, or a smaller parcel of higher value on upland or with water access.
Joseph said FWS told them they were “partners” in the lengthy process to save the Pink House. She and Kelly Page, a STPH executive board member, said they do not now feel like partners. For years, Page said the supporters had always tried not to “ruffle the features. Every time the agency raised the bar, we worked to meet it.”
“We feel like this is a betrayal,” Joseph said. “And we want to know why.”
In a letter to Moulton, Markey and Warren last August, the STPH wrote: “STPH has been led to work solely on land swap options. With donor funds, we completed all the steps required for the house to be released.” The letter also identified other ways federal land can be disposed of with help from the delegation, and asked for help to get to successful resolution.
STPH secured a restoration partner, Craig Pessina, a local restorer, who was ready to bring the house back to its former beauty dictated by STPH’s perpetual preservation restriction approved by the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Under it, the house, built in 1925, would forever remain pink and the door blue and maintained its signature silhouette, Joseph said.
“Craig Pessina was ready to begin restoring the house last fall to secure it before another winter. The architectural plans by Aileen Graf show how close we were. But in August 2022, we were to close successfully, but FWS lost the swap land at the 11th hour, “ Joseph wrote in an email.
“This is not the first time we have worked for years on a swap, only to see it fall through on the FWS end. Meanwhile, The Pink House has not been appropriately maintained and another winter is coming. Now it faces going through this winter in the shameful condition that the Refuge has let it fall into,” the STPH wrote.
Pink House supporters have launched a passionate campaign to save the house and are urging all its supporters to write to Congressman Moulton at seth.moulton@Mail.house.gov asking him to intervene and let FWS hear their passionate objections to the demolition during the comment period.
Email comments at: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/parker-river or parkerriver@fws.gov.
“Time is of the essence!” Joseph wrote. The public comment session will be open until Nov. 30.