HISTORY OF THE PINK HOUSE

Sandy Tilton, assisted by Alison Odle, conducted extensive research on the history of The Pink House in 2017. In 2019, the Newburyport Preservation Trust conducted their own research and presented it to  Support the Pink House.  Read the intriguing key findings below and please, contact us with any information regarding The Pink House history!

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1925 The Pink House built on salt marsh hay farm land

July 13, 1925  Gertrude W. Cutter buys TPH property from widow Abbie K. Little

Note: There is no evidence that a structure existed on the land before 1925, so the house was most likely built from the foundation up in 1925 for Gertrude's son, wife, and their infant son to live in. 

First Residents

First owners Henry T. Cutter & Ruth Morin Cutter wedding announcement

Nov 1925 Gertrude’s son Henry T. Cutter (Harry) moves his wife Ruth ( Morin) Cutter who he married in 1922, & his infant son, Henry T. Cutter Jr, (born May 23, 1923) into the newly built Pink House. 

Note: we have found no evidence of a house owned by any of the Cutters that could have served as the prototype / model for The Pink House

Chain of Ownership

• ​​1925 – 1947: The Pink House is owned by the Cutter Family. The deeds switch around from Gertrude to her daughter Charlotte, to her son Harry’s second wife Beatrice Bowry during these years. It appears that Ruth (Morin) Cutter filed lawsuits against both Gertrude and Harry over the years,  for different things. We assume the changes to the deed may have been to protect the ownership of the house and property from any legal judgement….this is just an assumption

• July 1947: House sold to Hilda & Chester Rogers
• April 1949: House sold to Hazel & Harold Proctor
• April 1950: House sold back to Hilda & Chester Rogers (according to a Proctor family member, Hazel Proctor was unhappy with the brackish running water inside the house, so the Rogers agreed to buy The Pink House back from them!).
• 1955: House  sold to William & Julia DeHart (we have heard many happy stories from local folks who visited with the DeHart family at TPH)
• 1960: House sold to Milton & Juliette Stott The Stott family had many happy years in The Pink House & have shared many of their wonderful memories from those times! Milton Stott passed away in 1978. The Pink House remained in the Stott family. Juliette Stott passed away in 2006.
• Sep. 1, 2011: U.S. Fish & Wildlife / Parker River National Wildlife Refuge purchase The Pink House and its acreage on the salt marsh. 

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Pink House in census 1930

First resident Ruth Morin Cutter, rumored "Spite House" wife of owner

The Divorce

Note: The divorce between the first residents Henry & Ruth Cutter happened after they moved in, and was unlikely to have been part of a divorce settlement. Their marriage was, however, on the rocks and some of the details as printed in the paper may have led to the 'Spite House' rumors. 

Nov 17, 1925:  Ruth Morin Cutter reportedly left the house, contacted an attorney and upon his advice "took what she thought was hers out of the house” and went to her mother’s home in Salem, MA, with her baby son Henry Jr.  She left the bed made for Harry.

May/June 1934: The Newburyport Daily News accounts state that Ruth said “trouble began in the marriage in 1924, " before moving into The Pink House Once Ruth was settled in, husband Harry “would go away on Sunday and not return until the next Saturday, leaving Ruth with $2.00 for the weeks' food and whatever was left over from the week before."

Her neighbor at Plum Bush Downs, Mrs. Titus, would often help Ruth with rides into town. “Harry (Henry was often called Harry) would get his meals at his mother Gertrude’s home in Newburyport."  According to the newspaper, The Pink House was said to have had "a foot of water in the cellar and both towels and newspapers were used in place of curtains."

Ruth claimed to have stayed in the house "for 12 nights and days with my one year old child, while the wind howled & the windows rattled."

Henry admitted to “making frequent visits to the apartment of Beatrice Bowry, a Boston business woman, but there was never any wrong doing.”  Henry later married Beatrice Bowry on Feb 8, 1937, after finally obtaining a divorce in the Florida courts.

The divorce which both Henry and Ruth filed for in Mass courts in 1934 was denied by a judge, both Harry and Ruth claimed "desertion on November 17, 1925” as the reason for divorce.  Henry and Beatrice made their permanent home in Palm Beach Florida with their son Stephen ad often stayed in The Pink House until the Cutter family sold it in 1947.

Was the house always PINK? 
Henry and Beatrice remained married to each other for the remainder of their lifet​ime. Henry and Beatrice’s grandchildren have told us that their father Stephen Cutter adored the times he spent at The Pink House & often spoke fondly of his family time there!

​We also know that they referred to it as the "little pink house" which makes us believe it probably was always pink. 

Henry T. Cutter & second wife Beatrice Bowry Cutter in Palm Springs

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Acknowledgements