PLUM ISLAND – Edith Heyck was one of dozens of painters and photographers and fans who came to honor the Pink House at a sunset vigil on Sunday. Joe Cmar held his handmade model of the Pink House up to the sunset light for all to see.
Dozens of photographers with long lenses recorded what most think may be the last time they can shoot the iconic house that stands between the highway and the marsh. And cars and trucks honked their goodbyes
Seventy-five to 100 hardy lovers of the Pink House gathered in a fierce wind along the Plum Island Turnpike to say a sad farewell.
“I can’t imagine driving to Plum Island and not seeing it,” said Heyck, who manages the Market Landing Park downtown on the Merrimack River. Carrying a framed painting she did of the house, she said, “I see her as a pink ballerina in a tattered tutu.”
One fan, wearing a pink hat who came to help park cars in the borrowed lot behind Bob’s Lobster, handed out an anonymous essay he had written in tribute to the Pink House.
“The opportunity to add potentially hundreds of productive acres to its land portfolio by trading the house and it’s one unproductive acre, USF&WS realizes that trade is a no-brainer. It’s like trading Fred Flintstone to get Ted Williams,” he wrote in the essay, asking not to attach his name.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which owns the Pink House and will contract, probably starting this week, to tear it down, worked with the Supporters of the Pink House (STPH) and its legions of fans and lawyers and contractors to trade hundreds of acres of wetlands for the vacant house and the 9 acres of dry land it sits on. An anonymous donor even offered to donate $1 million if the federal agency would not demolish the house.
The F&WS declined, saying the house did not fit with its mission of protecting wetlands and their inhabitants.
As the sun set on the house, car and trucks on the highway honked their goodbyes, and people, many dressed in pink, stood across the highway holding LED candles.
Asked how she was feeling, the usually loquacious Sandy Tilton, who helps run the non-profit organization STPH, could muster only one word, “Sad.”
Deb Levine said, “I don’t know of anyone who will benefit from its being demolished. There’s no point.” In fact, she said, the government would not have to spend the money to tear it down.
Steven Lindsay drove from Keene, N.H., to pay tribute to the house he saw every time he visited Plum Island. He said, the Pink House, which he described as one of the icons of the seacoast culture, “makes it special to come here.”
The F&WS is expected to replace it with a bench to view the marsh. ♦
