Island ACKtion
CLIFF HOUSE UPDATE: CISSY C CALLS REINFORCEMENTS
May 20, 2013
As I informed my ACK squad a scant five days ago (click here for the full article), though the building still stands, for all intents and purposes, the legendary Cliff House is finit.
The Baxter Road behemoth has been the site of some of the island’s most festive and famous shindigs. According to hospital records dug up by my intrepid intern, a total of seven Kennedy-related injuries have been reported on the property over the years. Many more have not been reported. And one can only imagine the sexual misdeeds committed on-site. There’s no telling whose DNA would be found if the dressing rooms that once surrounded the pool remained.
But the pool is gone, along with the dressing rooms, the lawn, the tennis courts (one clay, one hard), and most of the back veranda. The only thing left, really, is the home itself, one-quarter of a privet hedge, and a cantankerous owner still inside.
Don’t misunderstand. Cissy Codman and her seldom-seen husband Dudley are not entirely out of options. Tuesday will mark an important day in the fight to save their home. That night, the Board of Selectmen will vote on whether to move ahead with Cissy & Co.’s controversial hard armor schemes. She’s worked wicked hard on her quest and has even kicked millions of her own. Calls to Dudley Codman have gone unreturned, as per usual.
“It’s not happening,” says lifelong Sconseter and commercial fisherman Chappy Mayhew. “Her gimmick would cause havoc on a very fragile ecosystem. True locals won’t stand for it.”
To aid her cause, Cissy’s shipped in one of her kids. It’s the middle of her three children, Elisabeth Codman. Bess is an ER doctor in San Francisco and a graduate of Nantucket High School. She is the only one of Cissy’s kids to have attended school on-island.
“I’m only trying to get her out of the house,” Bess tells the ACKtion. “Seriously, Corkie, it’s nothing more.”
Way to play it cool, Bess. Way to lay low.
Stay tuned for news coming out of the Selectmen’s Office on Tuesday. Island ACKtion will be live-tweeting the event.
ABOUT ME:
Corkie Tarbox, lifelong Nantucketer, steadfast flibbertigibbet. Married with one ankle-biter. Views expressed on the Island ACKtion blog (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et al.) are hers alone. Usually.