A 'spite house' said to have been built by a man for his ex became an icon. Now it's the center of a demolition battle.
Jordan Pandy
- A "spite house" in Massachusetts was set to be torn down until residents stepped in.
- The US Fish & Wildlife Service, which owns the home, wants to remove it to better support wildlife.
An abandoned house, whose weather-beaten pink paint is pale and peeling, stands alone in the marshes of coastal Massachusetts.
The Pink House, as locals have dubbed it, sits on the side of a highway that leads to the beaches of Plum Island, a barrier island in the Atlantic Ocean about 50 miles north of Boston.
Locals told Business Insider that the Pink House has been a roadside sign of a good day to come at the beach for almost 100 years.
The unassuming "spite house" — said to have been built in 1925 by a divorcé ordered to build a replica of his marital home for his soon-to-be ex-wife — is at the center of a battle between the federal agency that owns it and wants to tear it down and locals who want to save it.
Local residents have banded together to save the Pink House.
The US Fish & Wildlife Service bought the Pink House and nine acres of marshland around it in 2011 for $375,000 from the last family that owned it.
It planned to demolish it in order to return the land to its original state and support local wildlife.
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, a US Fish and Wildlife refuge about a mile and a half away from the Pink House, is home to over 300 species, including birds, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles.
Rochelle Joseph, president of Support The Pink House, wasn't about to let the demolition go ahead without a fight. She believes the Pink House is a historic landmark crucial to the fabric of Newbury, Massachusetts.
"If you see the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge, you know where you are, right," Joseph said. "For the North Shore of Massachusetts, that's what this is."
Locals love to repeat an age-old story about the house being built out of spite.
According to urban legend, the house was built because of a messy divorce. The wife demanded that an exact replica of their marital home be built after they split. The husband obliged, but placed the home in the middle of a marsh.
Some versions of the story even include a detail about a court order that directed the home to be built.
Sandy Tilton, a board member of Support The Pink House, said that classifying the Pink House as a spite house appeals to people in Newbury and beyond.
"The legend about the Pink House being a spite house has been told for generation after generation after generation," Tilton told BI.
Tilton, however, has scoured local libraries for deeds and other records to uncover the home's true history. She said she couldn't find any evidence to support the myth that the house was built out of spite.
People lived in the house for decades, but it's been abandoned since around 2009.
The original owner, Gertrude W. Cutter, built the house in 1925 and moved her son Harry and his wife Ruth into the home, Tilton said.
The home sold a few times, and the last non-governmental owners were Milton and Juliette Stott, who purchased the home in 1960.
According to Tilton, the home was occupied by real residents until around 2009.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service says the house is unsafe.
When the federal agency first bought the Pink House, its plan was to protect the surrounding land from development and use the house to board seasonal staff.
During an environmental survey, though, it found asbestos and said that the interior living conditions were not up to par.
Joseph blamed the agency for the home's rundown state.
"It's in the condition it is now because Fish and Wildlife — some people call it demolition by neglect," she said.
A spokesperson for the US Fish and Wildlife Service told CBS News that "the decision we made to remove the structure is in the best interest of our conservation mission."
A last-minute donation to US Fish and Wildlife helped stop a planned demolition — at least temporarily.
In October, an anonymous area resident pledged up to $1 million as a donation to the US Fish and Wildlife Service to help address safety concerns to save the home just days before a planned demolition date at the end of October.
"That removes all financial obstacles," Joseph said. "And the federally elected officials absolutely should be jumping in here and be heroes."
"While we appreciate the recent generous monetary offer to help maintain the Pink House, we do not believe it affects the current course of action," the US Fish and Wildlife Service said in an October 30 statement.
Joseph is still optimistic that the funds will reverse the agency's decision.
"The hope is that these new talks will change things around," she said. "All we want to do is look forward."
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