Residents of a coastal Massachusetts town are angrily battling the government to save an iconic ‘spite house’ built along the East Coast near Boston.
The Pink House has been a part of Plum Island since 1925 and has become a well-known roadside tourist attraction.
But now, the US Fish and Wildlife Service – which acquired the home in 2011 for $375,000 – wants to tear it down and return the land back to a marshland for local wildlife.
Locals, however, want the iconic, weather-beaten home to stay, according to Business Insider.
‘If you see the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge, you know where you are, right?’ Rochelle Joseph, president of Support the Pink House, told the outlet. ‘For the North Shore of Massachusetts, that’s what this is.’
The history of the home is a local legend. Many believing the Pink House is a ‘spite house’ built by a divorcee who was ordered to build a replica of their martial home for his ex-wife.
He obliged them with a catch: he built the home on a marshland.
‘The legend about the Pink House being a spite house has been told for generation after generation after generation,’ Sandy Tilton, a board member for Support the Pink House, told Business Insider.
The Pink House has been a part of Plum Island since 1925 and has become a well-known roadside tourist attraction. But now the US Fish and Wildlife Service – which acquired the home in 2011 for $375,000 – wants to tear it down and return the land back to a marshland
Locals, however, want the iconic, weather-beaten home to stay. ‘If you see the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge, you know where you are, right?’ Rochelle Joseph, president of Support the Pink House, said
Tilton has done her own research on the home and wasn’t able to find any deeds or records that the house’s real story or confirm if it was built out of spite, but the local legend still stands and draws in tourists.
The original owner is said to be Gertrude W. Cutter, who bought the property off widow Abbie K. Little, according to The Pink House.
Cutter then constructed the Pink House in 1925 and her son Harry and his wife Ruth moved in with their baby in November.
That same month, the couple separated, but the house stayed in the family until 1947.
From 1947 until 2011, the home would pass between multiple owners before the governmental agency bought it.
The home had people living it in until 2009, according to Tilton.
When the US Fish and Wildlife Service bought it in the early 2010s, it was meant to be used as a boarding house for staff who were working to protect the surrounding land, according to Business Insider.
After asbestos was found during an environmental survey, the home was deemed not to be up to par for living conditions and has since been left to rot away.
Joseph believes the agency is at fault for letting the house deteriorate.
‘The legend about the Pink House being a spite house has been told for generation after generation after generation,’ Sandy Tilton said. Tilton has done her own research on the home and wasn’t able to find any deeds or records that the house’s real story. The board members believe losing the house would be a loss to the community
‘It’s in the condition it is now because Fish and Wildlife – some people call it demolition by neglect,’ she told Business Insider.
However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said the demolition plans were made in the ‘best interest of our conservation mission.’
Right now, the home’s removal is currently stalled after a local made a $1 million donation in October to help address safety issues with the house.
Joseph said the donation should ‘remove all financial obstacles’.
‘And the federally elected officials absolutely should be jumping in here and be heroes,’ she told the outlet.
However, the government agency said the generous offer will not ‘affect the current course of action’.
Despite that, Joseph is still optimistic the house may get a second shot at life.
‘The hope is that these new talks will change things around,’ she said.