Adams Camp, a North Beach Island cottage dating to 1890s, is demolished after blizzard damage

By Todd Feathers, Globe Correspondent

The owners of the Adams Camp, one of six remaining scenic cottages on North Beach Island off Cape Cod, chose to demolish the cottage last week after the Feb. 8 blizzard destroyed the building’s foundation.

The original cottages may have been built as long ago as the 1890s, according to the National Park Service. Last year, the owners of the remaining cottages sought to have them classified as historically significant, but their request was denied by the National Park Service, said Ted Keon, Chatham’s coastal resources director.

“They have been part of the landscape for many years,” Keon said. “A lot of people do find them important to the coastal aesthetic.”

Most of the rustic cottages were rebuilt following the October 1991 nor’easter, Keon said, but he did not believe the Adams Camp was one of them. If it had been, it would have had more secure pilings installed in its foundation and may have survived the recent blizzard, he said.

Keon, who did not see the camp after the Feb. 8 storm, said he heard that the sand dune the cottage sat on was eroded by waves caused by the storm, and that the building had collapsed on one side.

The cottage’s owners had applied to move the camp and replace the pilings, but their request to move the camp was denied because of conservation concerns in the surrounding area, said Robert Duncanson, Chatham’s health and environment director.

“It wasn’t on a very good foundation,” Duncanson said.