by Stewart Lytle and Ava Moeckel PLUM ISLAND – Last Tuesday, the Pink House’s final morning, several trucks, a huge excavator and a giant crane arrived before dawn under a heavy fog to begin taking down the house. Four Newbury police officers came to manage traffic on...
Stewart Lytle

Stewart Lytle is the lead reporter for The Town Common newspaper. Before joining The Town Common, he was a national correspondent for Scripps-Howard Newspapers in Washington, D.C., covering the Pentagon and Congress. He has also written for newspapers in Dallas, TX, and Birmingham, AL.
As a national reporter for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, Stewart wrote the inside story on military life of soldiers and sailors and their families. He landed on aircraft carriers, experienced oxygen deprivation for high-altitude flight training and crawled through the mud with Marine snipers.
One of his proudest achievements outside of journalism was assisting USAA Chairman Robert McDermott in securing federal legislation that mandated air bags in vehicles.
Stewart is also a novelist and has written non-fiction books. He is currently working on a non-fiction book and screenplay about an incident that occurred in Boston.
His first novel, Iron City Conspiracy, explores power in a city. It features a black newspaper editor solving the bombing of a historic black church in a tough Alabama town.
Following in the footsteps of his idol, Ernest Hemingway, Stewart has completed a new novel about a love affair in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. The book, Montserrat, is based on a true story and has been made into a screenplay that will become an international feature film.
A graduate of Phillips Academy and Princeton University, Stewart lives with his wife, Mary, in Newburyport.
Saying Goodbye Is Hard
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...
A New Roadblock for Whittier Move
REGIONAL – If Whittier Regional Vocational Technical School is going to receive state funding for a new building on the Northern Essex Community College campus, the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) is insisting that all 11 municipalities in its district...
Triton Approves New Graduation Rules
REGIONAL – While the governor’s task force decides what requirements students must pass to graduate from high school now that passing the MCAS tests are no longer the standard, Triton Regional School District has updated its own path to graduation to align with the...
DA Asked to Review Alleged Payroll Fraud
GEORGETOWN – The SelectBoard asked Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco last week to refer an unsubstantiated charge of payroll fraud by the Conservation Commission to the Essex County District Attorney or the state Attorney General. The referral was approved...
‘Not the News We Hoped to Deliver’
PLUM ISLAND – Despite having the governor, the state Senate minority leader, a state representative and hundreds of passionate volunteers in its corner, The 100-year-old Pink House will be torn down by March 30. The eagles and other birds that rested on its chimney...
Ready for Irish Music?
NEWBURYPORT – After the snows of the last few weeks, the Belleville Roots Concert for St. Patrick’s Day is a welcome harbinger of spring. The non-profit organization that supports the maintenance and restoration of the historic Belleville Church buildings is bringing...
School Left-overs Feed Needy Adults
REGIONAL – If your student does not eat an apple for lunch at school or passes on the chocolate milk and prepared sandwiches, don’t worry, the uneaten food will not go to waste. Thanks to an amazingly successful program run by the First Parish Newbury Food Pantry, the...
Taxpayer Money Makes ‘Free Fare’ on MEVA Permanent
REGIONAL – The colorful buses that ply the streets and shopping centers of the Merrimack Valley will keep running fare free permanently, the first transit authority in the state to do so. Originally funded almost three years ago through federal COVID-19 relief funds...
IPSWICH: Buying Time for MBTA 3A Housing Explosion
IPSWICH – The town is trying to navigate the shoals of the controversial, state-mandated MBTA Communities Law Section 3A by approving a carefully worded action plan for implementing new zoning guidelines. The SelectBoard voted three to two to submit the plan, saying...
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