This winter, less than 10 feet of eroding bluff stood between the Bartlett House in Eastham and the ocean. So, the Cape Cod National Seashore had it demolished.
That's according to Parker Mumford of the Provincetown Independent.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke with Parker recently to learn more about the erosion issue leading up to the demolition and the cottage's fascinating connections to the Watergate scandal.
Gilda Geist What did the Bartlett House look like and where was it?
Parker Mumford So, the location is kind of near the Coast Guard Station in Eastham. As you drive towards the Coast Guard Station there's a little bridge you go over where on one side on your left you have the ocean and on the other side you have this little inlet, kind of marshy area. The Bartlett House kind of looks down over that inlet and you can see both sides of that little spit from where it is. It's a really great location. The house itself isn't super remarkable. It's a smallish, Eastham, Cape Cod cottage built in 1960, knotty pine—pretty much what you'd expect.
GG The Bartlett House, also sometimes called the VIP House, had some really interesting historical significance, especially related to the Watergate scandal. So, what are the house's connections to Watergate?
PM Because of this great location, this house was used by the [Cape Cod National] Seashore to house political dignitaries that were vacationing in Eastham, and this was actually where John Ehrlichman was staying when he made the call in August 1971 to authorize the plumbers' first mission. And so Ehrlichman was Nixon's White House counsel. He was the one who Nixon's plumbers kind of answered to, and when they did their first mission—which was breaking into the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist in order to discredit him after he had leaked the Pentagon papers—they made a call to Ehrlichman, and Ehrlichman was the one who approved it. It was known, based on testimony at Ehrlichman's trial, that he had been staying on Cape Cod when that call was made, but it wasn't clear exactly where he was staying. But I got to speak to Jack Clarke, who was emptying the trash of the VIP House at the time and confirmed that John Ehrlichman was staying at that house in Eastham when he made the call authorizing the plumber's first mission.
GG Erosion has been an issue at the Bartlett House for decades, so what went into the decision to finally demolish the house? Who made that decision and who paid the bill?
PM So that decision was made by the Seashore. It was already unfit for human habitation a couple of years ago. They removed the freshwater well system in 2023 when salt water got into it, and then they removed the cesspool a little while later so that that didn't fall onto the beach when the bluffs continued eroding. The Seashore tried to sell the house in 2024 to see if anyone would take it and move it back from the edge. There were no takers, so they just decided to demolish it before it fell and became a public health hazard. It wasn't considered a historical property, so they determined it wouldn't be worth it to relocate it. Apex Abatement carried out the demolition—they are federal contractors—so the bill was paid by the Seashore.
GG The Bartlett House was just one of several houses that sit on eroding bluffs in Eastham. Are those houses destined for the same fate as the Bartlett House?
PM Interesting question because yeah, there's a lot of houses that are kind of teetering on the edge of this bluff. None of the others are owned by the Seashore. Actually, they're privately owned. I can think of a couple that I think are going come down in the next years. 157 and 153 Brownell Road are two that I've written stories on that I think are pretty likely to come down soon. I keep meaning to take a walk on the beach to see if they've fallen in yet because I really think it's coming in the next three to four years. As for the Seashore stepping in and demolishing them, the Bartlett House is really the only one that they were concerned with.
GG What will happen to the land that the Bartlett House used to sit on?
PM Well, this probably isn't the most interesting answer, but it's going to fall into the sea. So in that part of Eastham, the cliff is eroding at about three to four feet per year. It's not a uniform rate. Some years it erodes very little. Some years it'll erode 10 or 20 feet. But my guess is that it'll keep proceeding until it eventually falls in less than a decade from now.
