By Maureen Schneider
It all started as a whale’s tale – literally. David and Bernice Losinno took a day trip to Sea Isle City to lay eyes upon a beached whale in the fall of 2016. They missed seeing the whale but ended up seeing and subsequently purchasing something far different in Ocean City. The Losinnos rode home to Pennsylvania as the new owners of the “Little Pink Cottage that Could.”
In 1879, four Methodist ministers (Ezra B. Lake, James Lake, S. Wesley Lake and William Burrell) chose the town and established a Christian retreat. Overlooking the grounds of the Ocean City Tabernacle, the Losinnos’ recently restored home was built a year later in 1880 by the Lake Brothers. The home was erected for and inhabited by Simon Wesley Lake Sr.
It is said that buyers know within seconds of entering a home if it is the right fit for them. Bernice knew right away, claiming that the house “spoke to her.” David is still wondering what the heck it said!
This home is a key contributing structure to Ocean City’s Historic District, which was recently touted by Coastal Living magazine. The magazine refers to the “Residential Historic District full of bungalows and beach cottages making year-round life feel like an old-fashioned vacation.”
The couple worked closely with both the Historical Committee and the Preservation Society to return this gem to its former glory. Yet instead of gutting and renovating it, they feel they have “restored” the tiny beauty. David estimates that in addition to the many months contractors spent on the home, he and Bernice have over 4,700-plus hours of sweat equity invested.
They painstakingly took on much of the interior and exterior restoration themselves. Missing cupboard and closet doors, newel posts and spindles, as well as fireplace surrounds were collected from salvage yards in Philadelphia and subsequently installed.
They found their new “old” front door discarded in the alley, a perfect fit for this vintage home. This cottage is adorned in a colonial style, with both vintage and antique items nestled throughout. The newly rebuilt front porch is complete with painted white rockers and a cozy swing for long breezy after-beach naps. Life couldn’t get any better for these two.
More than 138 years old, this house could tell some tall tales. Neighbors and visitors alike have watched the couple renovate over the past year and a half. Some are stopping by for a tour of their childhood vacation home, some simply thanking the couple for their efforts to save this local treasure.
As one of the finishing touches, the couple chose the signature pink paint for the exterior of the home. The fresh paint encapsulates and protects this historic home, ensuring it will go on to host many more dinner parties, sleepovers, early morning coffee cliques and lazy afternoons on one of the best front porches in town.
The story of this house mimics the storyline of “The Little Engine that Could,” which instills the value of optimism and hard work. This cottage was built upon these values back in 1879 and restored as “The Little Pink Cottage that Could” with these same values in mind more than a century later.
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