A battered pink house on the coast of Massachusetts, beloved by generations of artists and romantics, will be torn down by the federal government in March, ending a yearslong fight to save it.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which owns the house, confirmed the plan on Friday. It came four months after Gov. Maura Healey intervened to try and save the house last fall, hours before it was to be demolished. Talks between state and federal officials followed, but no plan emerged to preserve the home in Newbury, Mass.
In a statement, Fish and Wildlife said the demolition would take place by March 31. The house sits at the edge of a wildlife refuge, and the timing, the statement said, is meant “to coincide with the return of an estimated 300 migratory bird species” to the refuge for the spring and summer.
“After a thorough and collaborative effort among all parties, relocation of the structure ultimately could not be accomplished,” the statement said. “The building is currently in a deteriorated state and poses risks to refuge staff, wildlife and the adjacent salt marsh.”
The federal agency acquired the structure, known as the Pink House, in 2011, when it bought nine surrounding acres from the home’s last private owner. Fish and Wildlife officials previously said that the 99-year-old house had attracted vandals and required costly upkeep, sitting in an active flood zone.
Ms. Healey lamented the decision in a statement on Friday, calling the house “a beloved fixture” and “a special part of the history, culture and fabric” of the coastal region north of Boston.
The governor, who grew up nearby in southern New Hampshire, counted herself among Pink House fans who had long cherished its familiar presence just before the bridge to Plum Island, a popular spot for day trips and vacations.
Artists and photographers have often captured the house at sunrise or sunset, when the surrounding sky mirrors its pale shade of pink. For many whose childhood summers revolved around trips to the beach on Plum Island, passing by the Pink House and its rooftop cupola signaled their arrival in a beloved place.
Rochelle Joseph, director of Support the Pink House, a nonprofit group that has fought to save the house since its demolition was first proposed in 2015, said the group’s quest symbolized something larger than one weathered, empty building.
“Naysayers can say there are far more important issues, but this was a testament to culture, to community, and the idea that these things matter, too, in this ugly world — that’s why we fought so hard,” she said. “All these people were fighting for something good and sweet and beautiful, and we don’t want the message to be that good can’t prevail.”
Ms. Joseph said supporters of the house had continued coming up with new ideas to save it, including by moving it away from the wildlife preserve, right up until the final decision was issued.
“The land was there, the money was there; the town wanted it back and the governor wanted it saved,” she said, “but Fish and Wildlife just didn’t want a solution.”
In its statement, the agency said that removing the house would allow it to restore the habitat for species such as the saltmarsh sparrow and create a wildlife viewing area.
A 100th birthday celebration for the house, built in 1925, will go on as planned in June “with undaunted spirit,” according to a Facebook post on Friday from Ms. Joseph’s group.
The group expressed its gratitude to Ms. Healey, to an anonymous donor who offered $1 million to help save the house, and to those who “came out to visit, photograph, and paint the house in all seasons, under the moon, the milky way, the northern lights, sunrises and sunsets.”
