Cape Cod Cottage on the Line
Cottage Number 8, Wellfleet, Mass.
Feb. 24, 2004
Dear Preservation 911,
One of Nathaniel Saltonstall and Oliver Morton's original artist's cottages is being threatened with demolition by a pending sale. Before the controversy surrounding the sale, the current owner of "Cottage Number 8" was unaware of the history and architectural significance of the property.
Built in the post-World War II modernist modular Bauhaus-inspired design by the pair of noted Massachusetts architects, the "Colony of Wellfleet" (as the cluster of 13 buildings is now called) served when it first opened in 1949 as "the Mayo Hill Colony Club" for contemporary artists. The main building in the cluster was designed as a gallery to display the work of the resident artists. Since 1963, the colony has become a popular summer vacation spot for such famous writers and artists as Diana Trilling and Henry Varnum Poor. Much of the original artwork remains on display in and around the cottages and has been added to since.
The threatened cottage rests on a gentle slope and, like all of the Colony cottages, blends into and takes full advantage of its natural surroundings of scrub pines, oaks, and patches of bearberry. Like their setting, the cottages are modest and understated. To lose one cottage would be like removing one of the blades of a pinwheel; the whole would become dismembered and unbalanced.
The Colony's significance was recognized by the Massachusetts Historical Commission in November 2002 and it was deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. On Dec. 16, 2003, the Wellfleet Historical Review Board granted a six-month demolition delay of the cottage, which will expire in mid-June. The new owner of "Number 8" entered into a sales agreement with a prospective buyer that was and is contingent upon getting permission to demolish the structure.
Interested parties should contact the following individuals as soon as possible expressing their opposition to demolition of the Colony of Wellfleet's Cottage Number 8:
Ms. Sibel Asantugrul, Chair, Wellfleet Historical Review Board
Town of Wellfleet, Town Hall
300 Main Street
Wellfleet, MA 02667
sibel@saarchitecture.com
fax: 508-349-0305;
Ms. Sarah Korjeff, Cape Cod Commission
3225 Main Street
Barnstable, MA 02630
frontdesk@capecodcommission.org
fax: 508-362-3136
Sincerely,
The Wellfleet Historical Review Board, Wellfleet, Mass.
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