Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/646476
152 like a grand dame keeping up ap- pearances. A closer look reveals a sadness reminiscent of an Edward Hopper painting—the façade peel- ing, plantings overgrown—an icon of a bygone era. The Pink House, as it has come to be known, captures the imagina- tion of just about everyone who passes it along the Plum Island Turnpike in Newbury. Even local wildlife is drawn to it—snowy owls and hawks often perch on the cu- pola, rising above the surrounding wetlands. While the house inspires artists to paint and children to tell ghost stories, for Juliette Loring, it in- spires childhood memories. It was her home for nearly two decades. "I understand the romance of the location better than anyone," says Loring, whose family moved into the house when she was in kin- dergarten in 1961. In the summer, they could paddle a boat right from their backyard into Plum Island Sound, and in winter, there was no better place for ice-skating. Nearly year-round, her favorite refuge was the unheated cupola, with the salt marsh and ocean stretching out in all directions, and low-flying planes zipping past on the way to the land- ing strip down the street. Not to mention dramatic storms whipping up the trees and water, making the house, all of a few feet above sea level, feel like an island. These days, the only action the cupola sees is from those birds of prey, using the high spot to hunt for field mice and rabbits. The home has been unoccupied since the early 2000s, when Loring's mother grew too frail to spend her sum- mers there and the family sold it to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in 2011 for $375,000. Since then, speculation has been