The day after Gov. Maura Healey promoted her office’s role in putting a hold on the demolition of a beloved historical landmark on the North Shore, the federal agency that owns the property said it is still planning to go forward with removing the structure, citing safety and environmental concerns.
The drama is unfolding over what has been dubbed the Pink House, an historical landmark on Plum Island built in 1925 that has been a favored subject of artists through the century that it’s stood on a precarious salt marsh.
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The house has been abandoned for years, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife purchased the structure and 11 acres of adjacent salt marsh in 2011 to protect the area from development, according to refuge manager Matt Hillman. Salt marshes are a globally rare ecosystem that are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise and more frequent and damaging storms, and provide a critical habitat for rare animal species.
Hillman said the agency wanted to protect the Pink House. Local folklore surrounds the landmark and how it came to be built. Most stories suggest the house’s uninhabitable location is the result of a spiteful divorce: the wife demanded she wanted an exact replica of her former home, but failed to specify where; her ex-husband built it on the outskirts of town in the marsh, where brackish water in its pipes made it unusable, myths say.
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